If you're young and ambitious you need to get out of Scotland

Those earning more than £43,662 already pay much more tax than those on comparable salaries across the UK, due to a combination of a higher 41/46% tax banding and the freezing of thresholds in Scotland. Rather than putting in measures to actually grow the economy and, therefore, boost the tax base, we see in this report, and no doubt in John Swinney’s Budget on Thursday, a simplistic tax grab on those who earn such salaries.

Whilst there is scope to potentially follow the UK Government’s lead on those earning over £125,000, the tax bands proposed by the STUC are excessively punitive and would simply discourage people from coming to Scotland and encourage those here to go elsewhere. For groups such as striking teachers, health workers and the like, on the top of their pay scale, and arguing for inflation-busting pay rises, such thinking will see them drawn even further into the next tax bands and reduce the real value of any increases obtained.

Devoid of any basic economic literacy, squandering the extra billions that come Scotland’s way through Barnett consequentials and blaming Westminster for spending cuts, the SNP simply looks to further strangle the "squeezed middle" as it has done repeatedly over its tenure.

Let us not forget that it was the SNP’s unnecessarily long freeze of council tax from 2007- 2021 that has caused much of the current problem and has allowed the funding gap to grow and services to decline to such poor levels. The phrase "those with the broadest shoulders" is now applied to more and more people by increases in council tax. Before raising income taxes yet again, the plethora of freebies that are handed out should be reviewed. If there are to be tax rises, then these should also apply progressively to those on lower bands too who actually benefit most from the SNP’s policies if services are truly to be seen as supported by all of society.

To those young people with ambition to get on and earn a reasonably good wage, my advice is to get out of Scotland as you will simply become a cash cow whilst the Scottish Government targets your taxes on those who form the majority of its voting base whilst the rest of us are simply told to accept cuts to our standards of living. In this respect, the STUC report has a strange notion of fairness, one that would see us all sink to the bottom in Scotland.
Susan Lanford, Glasgow

Will workers pay the price again?

RISHI Sunak has indicated his intention to introduce "tough" measures to protect the "people of this country" from industrial action in vital areas of the economy. Does he think that the many thousands of decent people – nurses, teachers, postal workers, rail workers – taking last-resort action to protect their living standards are from North Korea or have arrived in small boats from Albania? Perhaps he thinks they have been illegally smuggled into the country by Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile at the opposite end of the scale of injustice regulations on bankers and the City are to be relaxed. I wonder how long it will be before terms like "toxic assets", "casino banking", "banks too big to fail", "self-certified mortgages" re-enter the financial vocabulary. Or how long it will be before the self-same striking workers will be required through Austerity Mark 2 to once again bail out the capitalist system?
Brian Harvey, Hamilton

Tories have no right to lecture us

JOHN Birkett's answer to the unions' demands for substantial wage increases in order to avoid poverty seems to be successive PMs addressing the nation to convince us this is unaffordable (Letters, December 10). This would be a proven liar (or credibility problem, as Mr Birkett more delicately puts it). Or Ms Truss who advocated reduced tax for the rich and removing the cap on bankers' bonuses. Finally, we should have an address from a multi-millionaire to refrain from greed. All that would have worked quite well, I'm sure.
Bill Marshall, Stirling

No help if you play by the rules

THANK you for Tanya Gersiova's article (“Money issues are harder to talk about than death”, The Herald, December 10). It could not have come at a more opportune moment, as I have recently been in contact with a friend who is at her wits' end. I had never heard of the Money Talk Team (MTT), and I have advised her to contact them, as her interview with Citizens Advice Bureau failed to give any comfort.

The situation is this.

Since leaving school, she worked in the Royal Bank of Scotland for almost 40 years. Her marriage failed early on, and she was left to bring up, unaided financially by her husband, two young boys, one of whom was a baby at the time.

She aspired to be a home-owner, and managed to purchase a modest house with a large mortgage. A few years ago, with banks closing branches, she was offered a financial package to retire early or be transferred to another branch, to which, with no car, she was unable to travel. With her redundancy money, she paid off her mortgage and credit card debts, and has barely managed to keep her head above water.

She has a strong Catholic faith, and attends chapel frequently, doing voluntary work; has cared for both her ailing mother, sadly deceased, and a disabled aunt, without applying for Carer’s Allowance.

One son has left home, the other stays with her, but as an apprentice he earns very little, so is not able to contribute much. She has been “just about managing”, until hit with the recent massive inflation and energy hikes. She does not yet qualify for a state pension.

At a visit to CAB last week, she was advised that, as she has no mortgage, no debts, and despite the fact she was struggling on her bank pension of only £8,000 a year, she was not entitled to any help or benefits. Really? Had she been a drug addict, alcoholic, gambler, feckless and had enormous debts, she may well have qualified. Where is the justice in this?

She doesn’t work the system. I don’t know it, but plenty take advantage of it. Perhaps Fred the Shred, for whom £8,000 was probably a weekly wage, could supply an answer? Or does Royal Bank have a scheme to help its needy pensioners? Any advice would be welcome. Meanwhile, we shall have fingers crossed MTT can help.
Lesley Mackiggan, Glasgow

Why I will cut down on gas

IT’S not often I disagree with Doug Maughan (Letters, December 12) but on the price of gas I do.

I only have gas central heating, the rest of my energy is electricity, including two electric fires which I use during the day and in the evening. I have a smart meter.

Today so far my gas is £9.91 (only on for six hours so far) and electricity is £2.95. Monthly cost for gas so far is £132 and electricity £64.

So I’m going to get more electric heaters and cut down on gas.
Christine Anderson, Kilmarnock

Heat pumps snub a false economy

I WAS interested in the recent rather confusing discussions about the value or otherwise of domestic heat pumps (Letters, December 9 & 12). William Haughey, for example, unfavourably compares the cost of installing an air-source heat pump with that of an electric boiler, quoting costs of £15k and £3k respectively. He did not reflect on running costs.

An electric boiler will produce at most 1 kw of heat for each kw of electricity used; a heat pump will generate 3.5-4.5kw of heat for each kw of electricity depending on type. Clearly builders of new houses can save themselves money by installing electric central heating rather than heat pumps, but the occupiers of those houses will be paying for their parsimony for evermore.
Harry Griffin, Peebles

Read more letters: It is high time the power companies were nationalised

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