Tax chasm
David Alexander’s article (“Green housing policies threaten supply of homes”, 13 July) outlined the capital costs of a heat pump system but did not extend to to the operating costs. As electricity is expensive (four times that of gas) then annual energy bills will rise above current yearly costs and bake-in the cost-of-living crisis in Scotland. In addition, as the SNP plan to increase the current renewable electricity capacity of 15GW with an additional 45GW of windmills and 25GW of gas turbine plant when a total of only 20GW of capacity will meet the 2045 maximum winter demand, there will be a massive Constraint Payment bill that needs to be added to the operating cost of a heat pump system.
Add on to the above prices the increase in council tax, the proposed increase in tax to be imposed on higher and top rate tax payers in the 2024/25 budget, plus the additional tax to meet the demands of the STUC, and the tax gap between Scotland and rUK will increase to that of a chasm!
Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway
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