UK pension funds and asset managers, some of the biggest buyers of government debt, are sceptical of Chancellor George Osborne's reported plan to issue 100-year gilts to help finance the country's debt burden - but there was also a measure of interest in some quarters.

Osborne is considering the issue of very long dated government debt to take advantage of very low interest rates and the UK's perceived safe-haven status. The Treasury is understood to believe it would be financially advantageous for the government, and taxpayer, to "lock in" to these rates now.