Green penalties

SIR – I have a 2013 diesel car (bought on the advice of the government). From Monday, the ultra-low emission zone will expand to the outer limits of London, meaning that I will have to pay £12.50 each day that I drop my children at school, collect them from a Tube station at night, visit my 94-yearold mother who lives one mile away, do the weekly shop, visit friends and family, go to the cinema, go to work or walk the dog.

Our freedom of movement is being severely curbed and those on the lowest incomes are paying the highest price. This is simply punishment for people going about their daily business.

Giles O’flynn London SW15

SIR – Ambrose Evans-pritchard (City, October 21) reports that there will be a multi-trillion pound return on British investment in net zero. Even if he is correct, the return will not arise until well after many have suffered from serious fuel poverty.

Continuing to penalise fossil fuels with levies before alternative energy sources are available will only see more having to choose between heating and eating. If we are to avoid power cuts, stored energy (in the form of hydrogen, for example) will be needed for when there is little sun or wind.

To achieve net zero and avoid power cuts, we will need a massive increase (far beyond what is planned) in solar and wind-power capacity in order to supply electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps. That is in addition to the new nuclear power station programme, which is all part of a mirage being conjured up by the

Government. Yes, innovation and market forces can do the job, but only if allowed a reasonable time to deliver. Applying arbitrary target dates, while neglecting reality, threatens to return us to the Stone Age.

Roger J Arthur

Storrington, West Sussex

SIR – Having received a quotation to install an air-source heat pump at more than £10,000 – with an agreed Government grant of £5,000 – I did not proceed when I discovered I would need to insulate the outside walls of my detached house and replace more than a dozen radiators. The Government would be wise to insist on installation of heat pumps only in all new houses. Alfred Pope

Bristol

SIR – Our new community centre has only heat pumps for heating. It is often booked at 9am. This requires the pumps to work at the coldest time of the night, when they cost us most.

They perform poorly and at times we wish we had a gas back-up. In mild weather we use the heating system at midday to keep costs down.

John Dyke

Lifton, Devon

SIR – The very suggestion of a meat tax (report, October 21) demonstrates yet again how our metropolitan Government is out of touch with country folk. Such a move would be political suicide for a party that has long relied on those in the shires who either work in, or fully support, the rural economy in all its guises, to roll out the Tory vote on election day. Charlie Bladon

Cattistock, Dorset