Letter: Unfair exclusion

THE revelation that West Dunbartonshire is now the UK's worst employment blackspot (your article, 16 May) has not been helped by the previous UK Labour government's discrimination against Dumbarton and Vale of Leven.

In 2001, when Gordon Brown introduced stamp duty exemption on house purchases between 125,001 and 150,000 for disadvantaged areas, he excluded these two areas. This exemption was, and still is, available in Clydebank, Cambuslang, Knightswood, Cardonald and a host of other places in the UK - but not Dumbarton and the Vale, despite official statistics showing that this area was the third most-deprived in Scotland.

The result of this Labour failure is that many homebuyers in Dumbarton and the Vale have had to pay up to 1,500 more in tax to buy a house than many other places classed as much wealthier.

I have raised this matter with political representatives, but no-one has shown any interest in correcting this scandalous unfairness.

Graeme McCormick

Conveyancing Direct

The Salmond Chambers

Morrison Street

Glasgow