Water 'cash'
Eddie Barnes (Analysis, 8 April) writes that the "cash" for Scottish Water's reconstruction of the water system is coming from the Scottish Government's budget, £150 million a year, and that if it were taken out of the public sector the debt could be funded from the private sector, freeing up the "cash".
But what matters is not who borrows, but who pays for the borrowing. If Scottish Water borrowed on the private market, that would certainly reduce the apparent size of the Scottish Government's public-sector borrowing requirement, but it would not save the taxpayer any money at all.
This is because the cost of the reconstruction work by Scottish Water is not paid for out of public taxation, but by the charges Scottish Water makes to private and commercial users, which will include the interest on the borrowing, no matter who borrows.
RONNIE CRAMOND
Oswald Road