Rollback on net-zero pledges just preying on our fears

I THINK I need to apologise, as I think I am part of a wider problem. Let me explain why, before any suitable punishment is decided upon.

Firstly, I have not set foot in my bank branch for a long time. Possibly a year or more. Also, I haven’t used a railway station ticket counter for an even longer time, and instead buy tickets online and store them on my mobile phone if I am going to travel.

Thirdly, and perhaps most damning of all, I hardly ever carry cash around, to the extent that I don’t even use a wallet any more, and just carry around a few plastic cards in my pocket. If I have to pay for parking, I call a number on the side of the parking machine and poke at numbers on my phone to tell a computer how long I am planning on staying.

My actions, deplorable as they are, are sadly commonplace, and have led to a number of issues.

Bank branches are closing down, with 661 more set to close this year.

Then, 162 train ticket offices are set to close across the south of England, leaving services only at the busiest stations. And a decline in the rate of cash use is costing small businesses, and also means that almost a fifth of drivers say their council has either scrapped parking machines or is consulting on doing so.

Times they are a-changing, that’s for sure, with apologies to Bob Dylan.

While I am relatively well set up to deal with this change, I can well understand the angst that many others feel about the dramatic changes which are happening in the world.

It is a shift towards a digital era which many people, especially older people or those without access to a computer, a smartphone or even the internet altogether, feel they are being excluded from.

The fear of greater change coming into our lives due to the move towards net zero – by changing our boilers into heat pumps, our petrol or diesel cars into electric vehicles and so on – is no doubt also part of this modern anxiety felt by some.

Which is probably why our Prime Minister was so keen to roll back on changes planned for the coming years in a big announcement last week. You can keep your boiler for as long as it will run. You will be able to buy petrol and diesel cars for five more years, or secondhand ones almost forever (though try not to think of how much the tax will be).

Although they were policies that Conservatives brought in and voted for, they are now ones that only the Tories can save us from. Work that one out.

Likewise, the idea of inheritance tax suddenly seems dramatically unfair to Conservatives, despite them having been in power for a dozen years and never mentioned it before.

Is it only unfair now, or has the idea just never occurred to them?

But ushering in new technologies that help us cut carbon emissions are also something which could save us all thousands of pounds, whether that is in our energy bills or at the petrol pump. They are not really to be feared, but should be embraced. And any delay is merely hurting our own entrepreneurial spirit, as Britain has the capacity to lead on technology that could be brought in across the world, revitalising our economy and creating jobs for our children and grandchildren.

Mr Sunak’s announcement last week was not about saving money, it was sheer political opportunism, a chance to prey on the fears of a generation who feel that they are being left behind – as a result of policies that his party has been keen to embrace in the past.

So while I would like to see banks stay open, rail counters continue and cash remain, I don’t believe net zero holds the same fear, and neither should anyone else.