Sir, The decision by the Chancellor in his Budget statement to end tax deductions for buy-to-let mortgages is a shocking decision that unfairly discriminates against landlords who provide valuable housing across Scotland.
In other businesses, tax is applied on profit, which is as it should be.
Although we welcome other measures in the Budget, such as reforms to the Rent A Room scheme, which will increase supply of affordable rented accommodation, the decision on buy-to-let mortgages means landlords will essentially be taxed for investing in their businesses something utterly unthinkable in any other sector.
As a result of this increased cost and risk to landlords, you may see some within the sector feeling they are forced to increase their rent levels, which would obviously have a huge negative impact on tenants.
The Scottish Association of Landlords has been working constructively with both Shelter and the Scottish Government to find ways of increasing supply to drive down rent levels in hot-spots across Scotland, but this decision by the Chancellor potentially takes the legs away from that valuable partnership working.
We will be consulting our members, Scottish MPs and MSPs, as well as the Scottish Government and the third sector to find ways of trying to overturn this decision or, at the very least, to mitigate the damage this could cause to our business and to our customers in Scotland.
John Blackwood Chief Executive Scottish Association of Landlords
A law for ‘them’, another for ‘us’
Sir, I’m trying to work out why council chiefs warned that attendees at the Big in Dundee car event would be reported to police simply for attending a meeting of friends in an open to the public retail car park, with no inconvenience to other users, while the groups of Travellers setting up illegal camps on private and public property in the area do not get reported.
Presumably anyone at the Big in Dundee event found dropping litter would risk a fine of £60 or so, while these other irresponsible groups not only restrict the public from using the facilities, but happily leave mounds of litter every time they move.
At least next time the organisers will know to meet in Mill O’ Mains park, Linlathen football pitches or Camperdown play area, where both the council and Police Scotland will quite happily leave us alone to do as we please.
Or do we council tax payers not have the same rights as them?
G Adamson Morlich Gardens Dundee
The truth of Deepwater
Sir, Mr Lawrie’s letter (July 9) contains some discrepancies.
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig was owned by Transocean Ltd. BP leased the rig from Transocean for $500,000 per day.
Halliburton, one of the service companies on the rig, performed the cement job.
After the blow-out in the Macondo Prospect reservoir, Gulf of Mexico, BP’s then chief executive Tony Hayward, blamed the disaster on “a bad cement job”.
During investigations each company laid the blame on each other, with President Obama calling the finger-pointing a “ridiculous spectacle”.
In January 2013 BP pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges for the 11 rig workers’ deaths.
In a series of legal deals, BP agreed to settle its remaining claims with oil-services firms Halliburton and Transocean Ltd over the spill.
The deals effectively ended a five-year legal entanglement for Halliburton and Transocean.
Both companies said in news releases that they settled all remaining claims with BP and were fully indemnified by BP against future court findings.
To sum up, London-based BP was the owner of the Macondo well and its employees directed the drilling of the well.
Halliburton cemented the well and performed other critical services.
Transocean owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
In 2014, a federal judge presiding over the pollution case said that “BP acted recklessly to cut costs and failed to perform critical safety tests” that may have let workers know the Macondo well wasn’t properly sealed and that BP was at risk of losing control of it.
Nine of the workers were employed by Transocean and two by MI-Swaco.
Multiple spurious claims were made by people after the disaster earning them the nickname “spillionaires”.
This increased the amount of compensation BP had to pay.
Philip Wright Lochlands Street Arbroath
A budget for immigrants
Sir, I have mixed reactions to the Chancellor’s Budget, but one thing could result in another population flare up the proposed living wage is fantastic, but if it ends up with millions more arriving fromeverywhere in the world to take advantage of what would be an hourly rate several times what they would be paid in their own countries, we could end up with little or nothing gained for our own low paid.
These immigrant masses could and are likely to then claim all the associated benefits and send the money out of the UK either directly or in the form of child allowances being paid overseas.
What do we, the indigenous population gain or to be blunt and basic, we have suffered the five years of austerity and immigrant incomers reap the benefit.
Colin Cookson Stenton Glenrothes
Time to end the SNP’s cynicism
Sir, NicolaSturgeon may be correct in her claim poorer children will be disproportionately affected by George Osborne’s Budget cuts.
However, her own party’s cynical attitude to education and training funding in Scotland over many years suggests the SNP is equally culpable.
Many Scots fortunate enough to be educated before the SNP’s policy of education cost-cutting realise education and training is a highly effective route out of poverty.
Yet the SNP government has made cuts to education and training spending year-on-year relative to the UK since it came to power.
The direct impact on our children is borne out by declining numeracy and literacy rates in state-run schools.
Furthermore, the First Minister’s party is directly responsible for a reduction of more than 140,000 college places in Scotland.
By cutting lifelong learning opportunities for people of all ages, the SNP is directly damaging the chances of often less well-off Scots to equip themselves effectively in an ever-changing jobs market.
Is there any chance at all that Ms Sturgeon could take a break from her favourite pastime of constitutional game-playing at Westminster?
She could then concentrate on real issues, such as education and training, affecting the everyday lives of ordinary working Scots issues for which she has long since held full responsibility.
Martin Redfern Royal Circus Edinburgh
The false Greek comparison
Sir, Derek Farmer (July 8) claims again that Scotland is a small country with a poorly diversified economy, and would suffer the same fate as Greece should we chose to become independent.
His anti-SNP stance blinds him to the reality of Scotland’s position.
We are a wealthy, asset rich, industrious nation.
If we are the financial basket case he claims, where does the fault lie?
The “too wee, too poor” propaganda tool has been used against Scottish aspirations time and again by the London establishment enthusiastically supported by Mr Farmer and his ilk.
Unfortunately for the naysayers we now live in a world with a variety of information outlets at our fingertips.
Perhaps Mr Farmer should peruse Business for Scotland, which shows up the nonsense behind his poorly diversified economy charge.
“Before the oil, the deluge” or “The historical debt” are stark reminders of how Scotland has been systematically asset stripped by our Better Together partners for generations.
He may also wish to check out John Jappy’s articles on how Westminster has treated Scots.
If he has the time he should also read HJ Paton’s “Claim of Scotland”.
There is also, of course, the stain of the McCrone Report, which should remind everyone of Westminster’s duplicitous nature.
Using Whitehall’s own figures and accounts, along with testimony from people with first hand experience of how disadvantaged Scots are within the current set up, even he may alter his opinion on Scotland’s true worth and question why we consistently fail with a wealth of assets others would envy.
Our “successful union” hasn’t lived up to the billing, has it?
The days of using narrow party political tribalism as a means of disguising the disastrous results of London rule, allied with one of the biggest lies ever perpetrated on a people, are instruments of past centuries and should be consigned to history.
We deserve better.
Scotland’s futurewelfare depends on it.
Ken Clark King Street Broughty Ferry
Sad news from Inverkeilor
Sir, I was saddened to read about the demise of the Chance Inn in Inverkeilor (July 8).
My family has a long history in the Inverkeilor area and some personal history with the Chance Inn in particular.
As reported in The Courier and Advertiser on September 25 1952, my grandmother, Nora Smith (nee Edwards), had been working at the Chance Inn for Mr and Mrs R Lyon just prior to the family’s emigration to Australia.
In addition to that, my grandmother’s uncle, William Edwards, and his wife, Lily Green, were married at the Chance Inn in 1910.
It is unfortunate that the Chance Inn is no longer viable as a village pub and I hope that the planned conversion of the building is appropriately sympathetic to its history and importance to Inverkeilor.
Craig Smith Kingsbury Victoria Australia