Views
Fair fuel prices for everyone - for The Inverness Courier
RISING oil prices have again pushed the issue of the disproportionate impact of high petrol prices to the top of the political agenda. The higher prices, greater distances, and lack of transport alternatives add up to a triple whammy in the Highlands and Islands from which the only beneficiaries are the Treasury.
An additional problem in Inverness has been that Tesco charged more for its petrol than it did in Elgin. Last week, after further pressure from myself and others, the company finally ended this anomaly.
The premium that Tesco charged for fuel in the Highland Capital compared to Elgin could not be justified, and it was right to stop taking advantage of the lack of competition in Inverness.
But it is only part of the story - in fact it serves to highlight the problems faced by hard-pressed rural filling stations and remote communities.
Rural filling stations play a vital role in their communities. The service they provide is essential to the economy of the areas they serve and many people rely on them. But while the big supermarkets can afford to charge lower prices, rural stations face higher costs. We need to level the playing field.
This problem is made much worse by the taxman. Not only is there fuel duty, but VAT is levied on the final price charged at the pump, so Gordon Brown takes more money in tax per litre from rural stations than from city pumps.
That cannot be right.
When I proposed a duty cut for rural areas in Parliament in July, both the Labour and Conservative parties rejected the idea. Indeed, the minister arrogantly compared the higher price of petrol in rural areas to the price of a pint of beer in London.
This short-sighted approach failed to recognise that not only is a car a necessity for people in rural areas, not a luxury, but also that motoring costs are a significantly higher portion of our spending than elsewhere in the UK. By helping to ensure fairer competition, such a move would assist rural filling stations too. When Parliament returns in October, Highland Lib Dems will be redoubling our campaign for a duty cut for rural areas to reflect these facts.
Affordable Housing
It is no surprise that housing was one of the issues raised most often at my recent surgeries.
Both in Inverness and outside, the problem is the same - lack of access to homes that people on average wages can afford to live in. House prices are rising far beyond the means of most local people.
In Inverness, the huge numbers of people presenting themselves to the council as homeless is being compounded by the fact that private sector rents are rising more rapidly than either wages or housing benefit.
This is in large part a question of housing supply. While substantial new investment is now going in to building more affordable homes, this is still not keeping pace with the needs of communities. Not only is there a huge waiting list, but more people are being added every day. In some places, efforts to build new homes are being hampered Scottish Water's slow response to the need for extra capacity.
The sense of urgency about tackling this crisis - I use the word advisedly - being shown, for example, by the many housing professionals at work locally needs to be shared more widely.
There is still a surprising sense of complacency in some quarters. The paper from Highland Council responding to the Cairngorms National Park's proposals missed the chance to move this debate forward.
There are good reasons to think that residency criteria for all new homes might be going too far and we need the private sector to be partners in tackling the crisis. But for a proportion of new homes it could make sense, in addition to the current rules requiring a share of new developments to be affordable.
There does also need to be recognition that the Park is not a separate economic entity - many people live in Strathspey and commute to Inverness - though it does have specific problems.
Giving planning authorities the power to decide whether a house can be turned from a permanent residence into a second home would also provide the ability to ensure that small communities are not dominated by houses that are empty for most of the year.
By stimulating a debate on radical new ideas the Park has done us all a favour. Radical thinking is needed. More of the same will not be enough to solve the huge problems that we have today.
Posted on: 29/08/2006
