Big Issue readers debate the impact of the Right to Buy scheme, wildfires and how employment changes have impacted small businesses.
Right to Buy’s long shadow
Your article on Right to Buy’s failure in numbers starkly demonstrates why we have such an enormous lack of essential social housing. So many of the problems we face today come from misguided policies and political decisions since the 1980s. How many of those 2,052,813 council homes that were sold since 1980 are now in the private rented sector? Do we know? It is crazy that homes that used to provide income for local government are now a charge on our government through universal credit/housing benefit.
Richard Dimbleby, Northampton
Rage fuel
With reference to Soraya Fettih’s article about being evacuated from her home in Bordeaux, her rage at governments continuing to subsidise the fossil fuel companies driving the climate crisis was very understandable. She mentioned TotalEnergies’ profits of $6.03 billion (£4.45bn) for the last quarter. Shell’s profits were even more eye-watering at $9.84bn (£7.26bn). As she rightly says we must make polluters pay, but it is also vital that all governments move away from oil and gas and invest in clean, renewable energy. New drilling in the North Sea is inconceivable after the summer we’ve just had. The UK government must listen to the scientists and say no to Rosebank and Jackdaw.
Alison Thompson, Birmingham
Debt zero
While children in Britain are back in their classrooms, millions in other countries are denied access to education because their governments face overwhelming debt repayments. Almost all countries borrow to finance public spending. However, lower-income countries borrow from private lenders at rates of interest as much as eight times higher. When global economic shocks come, it leaves them unable to fund essential services like education and healthcare.
