Britain’s struggling households are in no position to pursue net zero at any cost

sir – You report (January 13) on the “net zero plan to ban gas boilers in a decade”.

In a free-market economy, as new and more efficient technologies become available, consumers will naturally rush to adopt them.

However, until we reach that point, the imposition of arbitrary target dates forcing us to adopt costly and less efficient solutions amounts to economic suicide.

A grown-up debate on this net zero obsession is long overdue.

NH Bailey Stockport, Cheshire

sir – For a political party to be elected or re-elected, it must possess credibility. There is a distinct lack of this in Britain.

Why are wind and solar farms being promoted and becoming central to Britain’s energy system, even though they don’t work when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine?

Why is there virtually no existing or planned energy storage infrastructure to back up these power sources?

Why are the sales of new diesel and petrol cars to be banned by 2030 when there are insufficient charging points for electric cars, as well as insufficient energy generation?

Why are we importing vast quantities of gas, coal and oil when we have our own resources?

Who is going to pay for expensive non-gas boilers and heat pumps?

The present Government has lost its credibility in the eyes of the public. The Opposition offers little better. Stuart Moore

Bramham, West Yorkshire

sir – There is to be an increase in the number of solar panels on commercial and residential buildings. Why hasn’t this been happening already? There are plenty of new developments going on, yet not one of them appears to have solar panels as standard.

As for heat pumps, a friend of mine moved into a new build that had one fitted, but is now struggling to find an engineer to service it.

These sorts of issues should have been considered during the planning phase – but perhaps that would be expecting too much.

Charles Penfold

Ulverston, Cumbria