Apparently, a ground source heat pump is to be installed in the Kingston Maurward estate.

READ MORE: 'Kingston Maurward College considers £2 million heating system'

It’s certain that its electricity bills will greatly exceed what they were paying for gas and oil.

I’ll explain why. In 1990, the UK’s regional electricity boards were privatised. We don’t therefore own much of our energy, individually or collectively.

The UK is rich in offshore wind, but only 7% is owned by UK entities.

Our energy infrastructure is owned by National Grid and other private companies. UK’s ‘Big Six’ supply companies are owned by UK, French, German and Spanish investors. These investors aren’t interested in clean, green, affordable energy. They’re seemingly only interested in their profits.

That’s why since energy was privatised we’ve seen rip off prices, burning of fossil fuels and a lack of investment in the clean energy infrastructure we need.

The government needs to bring energy into public ownership a.s.a.p. This would save us around £3.2 billion in dividends and a lower cost of borrowing – money that could be reinvested in getting us to our carbon targets quicker.

If we’re going to have a chance of preventing widespread climate disaster, we can’t keep waiting for the private sector to deliver our clean, green energy future. Public ownership is the only way to transition quickly to zero carbon, hand in hand with workers, citizens and communities.

Continuing to subsidise domestic solar panel installations by tariffs but increasing the financial incentives to do so would have helped all of us but HMG ended them and now gives those subsidies to commercial windfarm, solar farm and heat pump projects which don’t need them.This has put private overseas companies in charge of our lives.

It’s ‘Planet or Profit’ time!

Time we took back control of our future surely?

MIKE JOSLIN

Garfield Avenue, Dorchester