Labour will have to do the same U-turn

IN response to Maddie Evans’ assertion that I am being overly pessimistic, I would say that I am being realistic – and that seems to be the conclusion of Rishi Sunak, who has sensibly decided that the 2030 ban for petrol and diesel cars and gas and oil boilers is unrealistic, given the increases in power generation and distribution that are required, and also that it would place a large financial burden on a large segment of the population which will alienate people.

So whilst we all want to see a reduction in CO2 emissions, it has to be at a pace that can be achieved and is affordable for most of the population. So I fully support the Prime Minister’s decision, and if Labour get in and overturn it, then they will at some point have to do the same U-turn.

What should be happening is that all new builds should have solar panels on their roofs. We have had them for over 12 years and they have paid for themselves and provide a useful contribution to our electricity requirements.

On the subject of heat pumps, several people in my village have had their bottled gas or oil boilers removed and replaced with air source heat pumps and they all say that these are much costlier to run in electricity than they were paying in oil or gas.

That’s because they only heat the water to a maximum of 40C, so you have to raise that to 60C using an immersion heater for the hot water and the heating needs to be on a lot longer in order to provide the same heat output, therefore using a lot of electricity. That’s aside from having to fit much larger radiators and having a fan unit whirring away for a large amount of time.

The people I have spoken to all regret changing over. It seems to me that none of these green technologies is currently as cost effective, or as useable as existing systems, be it cars or domestic heating.

Paul Wilton Cornwall