Government should be on public’s side

LOOKING at the growth of business over the years, it becomes fairly obvious that large firms have created niche markets for themselves at the expense of the public. Petroleum products and cars stand out. None of the big firms in these fields would have gone out of their way to have produced alternative means of propulsion as their profits would have suffered.

Electric cars have changed all of this. Thinking ahead, the next step will be a switch to hydrogen – the cheapest fuel that could be made available to the public. This is where an imaginative government would assist with research to make it happen in the public interest.

The same kind of thinking applies to housing. It must be possible to create a roof tile that generates electricity at a reasonable cost.

This requires a major government contribution to make it happen. If every new house had cheap electricity, the consequences would be colossal in terms of revenue and benefit. A good imaginative government makes things happen and should always be looking to the future to give the public the best deals possible, and not thinking so much on how to raise taxes.

Ian Ferguson Dawlish, Devon