Wealth imbalance borne by all living outside London

Sir, – Originating in 1974 after a report by the Pay Board, the London Weighting Allowance pays public service workers higher rates within certain radiuses of the city centre than their peers in the rest of the UK. The NHS pay awards for 2021-22, for example, allow a 20% uplift for Inner London, a 15% uplift for Outer London, and a 5% uplift for the London Fringe, all in addition to the 3% pay rise for NHS workers in the rest of the UK.

Since 1974 many private sector companies and NGAS have followed suit, offering similar if slightly less generous allowances.

No matter how it is subsidised the consequence of this centralisation of the British state has been a net flow of wealth to London over the past 47 or so years.

The imbalance is borne not just by us Scots but also by English residents living outside these defined London areas.

Yet consider this: citizens of the Republic of Ireland, under the provisions of the Common Travel Area (CTA), benefit from the same allowances if they choose to live and work in London, while no tax support moves from the Irish Treasury to the British one.

An independent Scotland would be in a similar position, with its citizens free to travel and to reside anywhere in the CTA.

I make no pretence that this suffices as an argument for independence, but merely another small example of how our country is dragged along by established thinking in the ex-capital of empire from a bygone age. With self-determination we could manage our affairs for the best interests of our citizens rather than the invisible recipients of London’s unchallenged wealth-flow.

A pipe-dream? Well, not so in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway, each a small country with the historical good fortune never to have fallen under British Dominion. Hugh Reid. Grange Park, Dunfermline.