I AM greatly concerned about the housing situation, particularly in rural Scotland where houses are being bought up by buyers whose domicile is other than Scotland because they have the funds to outbid the local young buyers. It is past time for something to be done to address the issue.
May I suggest that, with immediate effect, buyers of non-Scottish domicile pay a sum equal to the purchase price into a welfare fund and that their council tax is doubled until they take up permanent residence. If this does not stop the “land grab” then the welfare fund will provide necessary funds to purchase land for house building, which cannot be sold other than back to the welfare fund should the occupant need to leave the house for something like a change of job.
If some find this draconian, let them tell Scotland’s young adults that it is just tough luck that they cannot afford a house in their own land.
M Ross
Aviemore
THE Scottish Government’s new NHS Scotland Assure idea is a very welcome development, but it’s not an entirely new idea.
When I first had experience of the Scottish Health Service in the early 80s, the Common Services Agency was responsible for commissioning and designing new hospitals. This may have resulted in new hospital buildings being rather repetitive and dull, but it incorporated the principle that both standard practice and necessary innovation were consistently passed on in-house.
READ MORE: New NHS service set up to ensure quality control in buildings
At some point in the move towards privatisation during Thatcherism and New Labourism this got lost. Private companies designing and building new hospitals had to be spoon-fed basic information, often at the later stages where clinical staff looked at architect drawings and, if we were lucky, spotted various glaring omissions: for example “Where’s the treatment room?”
I speculate that if the old Common Services Agency model had persisted, the quality of plumbing and ventilation systems in hospitals would have been improved and standardised long ago, along with many other aspects of design whose absence commonly blights new hospitals. Better late than never; Scotland Assure is a good idea from the past, brought up to date.
Derek Ball
Bearsden
WE were completely sickened to read about the teenage boy who allegedly stabbed a hedgehog to death at Brannock High School (Teen charged, May 22). The pain and fear this poor animal must have gone through at the hands of the perpetrator is unimaginable.
We are grateful that Police Scotland has taken this issue seriously and quickly charged someone, and we are also grateful to Motherwell District Wildlife Protection and the vet involved for doing all they could to help this poor creature.
We hope whoever is responsible for this despicable crime receives the fullest, most severe punishment possible for carrying out such a cowardly attack.
Fay Vass
Chief Executive, British Hedgehog Preservation Society
SCOTLAND is already showing real climate leadership ahead of COP26 being held in Glasgow later this year (Protest urges Scots council to take pension investments out of fossil fuels, June 1).
Oil & Gas UK (OGUK) recently signed the landmark North Sea Transition Deal on behalf of hundreds of Scottish companies, reflecting the transformation the nation’s offshore oil and gas industry is leading. This is the first deal of its kind by any G7 country. It will harness the oil and gas sector’s 50 years of energy expertise to develop the key low-carbon technologies essential to dramatically cut carbon emissions – and, crucially, to help other industries to do the same.
READ MORE: Protest urges Scots council to take pension investments out of fossil fuels
Pushing for divestments from “fossil fuel” companies, while well-intentioned, misunderstands that these are the very same companies whose highly skilled employees in Aberdeen and around the country are delivering the innovation in the cleaner energy technologies we need to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The UK offshore oil and gas sector was the first industry to commit to achieving net zero. We’re keen to work with people across the whole of society, using our vast energy experience to tackle the climate crisis.
Mike Tholen
OGUK Sustainability Director
AGREE with James Fish (Web comments, June 1) regarding Rangers and Union Jackery. I well remember Lee Marvin’s 1970 hit song Wandrin’ Star and how the lyrics were altered and sung by a significant core of the Ibrox faithful. The first line change was “I was born under a Union Jack”.
Alan Reid
via email
YOUR correspondent WJ Graham (Letters, June 2) is incorrect when he/she writes that genocide has never happened. British settlers in Tasmania succeeded in annihilating the entire Aboriginal population of that island during the 19th century.
Neil Caple
Braemar
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