Sir, – Two recent surveys of house prices (The Courier, January 1) seem to have conflicting conclusions but, as stated one, Halifax, covers Perth and the other, Aberdein Considine, covers Perthshire.
The Perth survey shows a drop in prices and thus demand, and the Perthshire survey shows an increase in average price and thus demand – or so you would think.
Rural Perthshire is awash with large houses that sell for millions and it would only take a couple extra of these houses to be sold in the year, to skew the market.
The top 10 properties sold in Perthshire last year would top £15 million pounds.
A couple of extra sales of this type of house would lift the average house price for Perthshire by £4,000.
Last year, according to one of the surveys, there were 900 house sales in Perthshire.
Of that number the top 1% can alter the average by £4,000 so, using average house prices as a guide to the state of the housing market is not the best way.
Perhaps a median price would be a better and more accurate way to measure house prices.
There is not a massive demand for new houses in Perthshire and no need for the massive developments the council are granting permission for.
Builders are selling unsold houses to housing associations and offering to buy-back houses a few years old, if the owners want to buy a new house.
These methods might not alter average prices but they do alter sales figures and can deceive the market by altering the perceived demand for houses.
I would like to add that Perth and Kinross Council’s comment that there is a need for 1,000 new houses a year might be true, but at least half of these would be for the rental market.
If only 900 houses a year are sold from new and existing stocks and, say, 200+ are people down-sizing and 200+ are up-sizing, then half the sales are from existing stock where people are basically swapping houses.
The numbers don’t add up to equal the amount of houses the council think is required.
There is already about 30 years’ worth of development land available stock in Perthshire.
The only reason the council can’t see this must be the Ivory Tower has mirrored glass in its windows.
George Mailer.
16 Hunter Street,
Auchterarder.
Black cab rapist’s release
Sir, – Once again our much-vaunted “justice” system has released a man, after only eight years, who is guilty of appalling crimes, made worse by being carried out from a position of trust as a black-cab driver.
No-one wants any particular group targeted, and not to wish violence on anyone, but will we ever see a genuine reduction in violent crimes until the families or friends, or people close to the judges and top politicians are themselves victim of violent crimes?
If policymakers were personally affected by these terrible crimes, would it influence them to the point we would then see longer jail sentences, consecutive rather than concurrent, with no tariff reductions, with sentence lengths linked to the number of victims, and where “life” immediately means life?
John Birkett.
12 Horseleys Park,
St. Andrews.
NHS service delivery wrong
Sir, – The problems of the Scottish NHS are usually presented in purely financial terms.
However, I suspect we are using the wrong model of service delivery, one that is based on hospitals rather than community services, with far too little thought going into preventative measures such as health promotion, disease prevention, and adequate provision of social care and housing
That said, funding health out of general taxation revenue and making it free at the point of contact has delivered such an inefficient, monolithic monster that at some stage we really should consider other ways of providing universal cover.
A good example of this is the social insurance model used so successfully in the likes of Germany, Holland and Switzerland.
Rev Dr John Cameron.
10 Howard Place,
St Andrews.
Investment in our youth
Sir, – As an alliance of organisations campaigning to improve mental health services for children and young people, we share the concerns of the Mental Health Foundation that loneliness is creating mental health problems among tens of thousands of young people across Scotland (The Courier, January 5).
New research by the charity has found that more than half of 18 to 24-year-olds experience depression when they feel lonely, with 42% saying it leads to anxiety and 67% saying their mental health worsens as a result of feeling lonely.
As we are aware, loneliness can contribute to stress, anxiety, depression, paranoia and cognitive decline, and it is a well-known factor in suicide. It can be both a cause and effect of mental health problems.
The Scottish Government has made this year the ‘Year of Young People’, but if it is to genuinely deliver on this it must place health and wellbeing at the heart of the school curriculum; invest in school-based counselling services, and give teachers the training they need to create inclusive environments and explore mental health.
The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition.
91 George Street,
Edinburgh.
Not the same picture I see
Sir, – I welcome the continuing arguments from Ken Clark. (Letters, January 2)
Our NHS staff are indeed hard working and dedicated, as are the UK health staff, so where Ken Clark gets the idea Scotland is better than England puzzles me.
Scotland has sent patients to other parts of the UK for specialist treatment at a cost of £51.7 million over four years. Private consultants were hired at a cost of £14m to reduce waiting times, but this did not happen.
Prestwick will never be “a sound future investment”.
Welcon, Skycon, Aquamarine and Pelamis were all renewables failures given grants by the Scottish Government.
So where is the “success story”?
He also says “in spite of Westminster’s attempts at cutting it off at its knees”, referring to the slashing of the huge subsidies that wind turbine electricity attracts. These subsidies created more fuel poverty.
I agree that the main driver for Police Scotland was to provide savings of £1.1 billion by 2026 whilst maintaining front line services.
This is not happening and manpower reductions have added pressure on the staff.
Clark Cross.
138 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
Conviction or prophecy?
Sir,- While working in his ecclesiastical career, the Rev. Dr John Cameron was concerned with the greatest of all mysteries for us, related to the Creation and eternal questions of the spiritual life.
The truth of prophecies for us, in Brexit, although of infinitely lesser importance, is quite unknown, though our people have very strong, differing feelings about what might and ought to happen.
John Cameron’s views on Brexit are very well known, so he surely ought to be less assertively clear-cut and presumptious as to its outcome?
Just as, doubtless, he has been in arguing matters eternal.
Dr Charles Wardrop. 111 Viewlands Rd West, Perth.
It all started with a fondness
Sir, – I am grateful to Bill Stirling (Letters, December 28 , 2017) who has put flesh on the bones of my letter concerning barley and malt whisky.
His mild criticism of my researcher at St Andrews University is slightly unfair; she is working on marine biology and her thoughts stem not from her research, but rather her knowledge of my favourite tipple, a particular brand of a single malt.
A.A. Bullions.
6 Glencairn Cres,
Leven,
Fife.
