WE HEAR a lot about saving the planet from global warming, but apart from punishing people with higher taxes, with which I disagree, there is no green initiative from the Government worth considering.

However, a lot could be done. Some 25 years ago, the City of Edinburgh's older housing stock, mostly Victorian tenements, was in a poor state of repair.

So the council, with government backing, set up a grant scheme at 90 per cent of cost to renew the buildings. This very high level of grant made neighbours join forces and the housing stock was transformed.

Now, with greenhouse warming, which is going to devastate the world our children inherit, we need the same level of grant, but this time to install solar water heating systems and solar panels, which generate electricity directly. Such systems are much more efficient than they used to be and, on a wide scale, could make a real impact.

Gordon Brown talks about "personal responsibility" for tackling warming, but he shows little himself when it comes to giving people money to install these systems.

I think they have already sold out to nuclear power and couldn't care less about the planet we live in.

We do know that they are burning money in Iraq, in an oil war, where oil is the problem and no longer the solution. History will judge them harshly.

Chris Clayton,

Hempland Drive,

York.

Updated: 09:50 Thursday, April 27, 2006