PDE Column, 25th January 2010 – Boiler Scrappage Scheme, Renfrewshire Budget, Renfrew Ferry, Labour’s Literacy Commission

DON’T LEAVE SCOTLAND OUT IN THE COLD

Many readers may have seen articles, including in the PDE, offering money off a replacement boiler. The problem is the scheme only applies in England and Wales because the SNP Government have so far refused to introduce it in Scotland despite our colder weather up here.
Ten years ago with Donald Dewar I helped create the free central heating systems scheme for pensioners which ran for a decade. I was proud of the fact there was no means-testing involved. I reasoned if an elderly person does not have a central heating system it is because they cannot afford it. This scheme was scrapped by the SNP Government last year.

So it is doubly disappointing that the SNP Government are now holding out against a boiler scrappage scheme. We all know it worked for the car industry last year. We should learn the lessons. A boiler scrappage scheme would improve energy efficiency and boost the country’s plumbing industry.

I am campaigning for the Scottish Government to think again. Householders would get £400 towards the cost of a new energy efficient boiler. A new boiler would reduce people’s bills by as much as £235 a year and help those eligible to cut their carbon footprint. 12,000 homes would benefit.
There is no reasonable justification for failing to press ahead with the scheme, especially when the money is there to pay for it. The Scottish Government should move quickly to introduce a similar cash-back scheme for efficient boilers.
This is one of those win-win ideas -  it saves money, protects our environment, and supports local business. There’s no downside for the Scottish Government so there is no reason for Scots to miss out.

Renfrewshire budget

Sometimes people think campaigning makes no difference – my message is that it does.
Over the last year I have been involved in two big education campaigns locally. One to keep musical instrument tuition in our schools and another to halt the £2.5m cuts in local school budgets. I am glad to see in the Council budget – there were no further cuts in music tuition (although education bosses had drawn up plans for this) and local school budgets faced no further cuts.
One lesson I can take is that campaigning matters. So this year I want to see an end to cuts in teacher numbers – Renfrewshire has axed more proportionately than any other authority in Scotland – and a rethink of plans to cut secondary school buses. The alleged savings from cutting buses could be covered five times over if the council could just collect all the council tax it is due.

Renfrew Ferry

And on the subject of campaigning – if you have not done so please sign my online petition to save the Renfrew Ferry. Find it in the ‘Have your say’ section.

Finding consensus

And if all of the above suggests politics is always about differences – it is sometimes about building consensus. Labour has been trying to build a parliamentary consensus to implement the findings of Labour’s Literacy Commission.
We all know of cases where kids leave primary school without enough of a grasp of the basics. So 18 months ago I helped establish the Literacy Commission and we recruited author Ian Rankin to the cause.
The Commission recently reported that almost 1 million Scots have difficulties with literacy and every year almost 1 in 5 children leave primary school unable to read and write.
The Commission said that the use of synthetic phonics has hugely improved literacy levels in West Dunbartonshire and Clackmannanshire. So I want to work with all parties to implement a Literacy Action Plan based on the Commission’s report immediately. What is required now is the political will to act and act quickly.