John O’Donnell claims that the taxpayer is bearing the brunt of failed services (Letters, May 26, ‘Taxpayers bear brunt’). I agree fining the NHS is a waste of time and money and the taxpayer pays.

But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is the taxpayer is not paying enough for services we all want. Instead of fining NHS Trusts we need to give them more money so that they can do their job properly.

We have a national debt to pay off and the Tories have chosen to do this by austerity. That is, by reducing the funding to essential services, cutting jobs and keeping wages low.

They say this is a fair way! I ask those readers with well-paid jobs, how many of you have felt much or any of the pinch of austerity? How many of you are fed up with the side effects of austerity (reduced funding to councils is affecting libraries, roads, fire services, care for old people and much more)?

It would be much better and fairer if everyone paid a bit more income tax. I’m not suggesting a huge increase, but then we could do away with the worst effects of austerity and start paying off the debt.

I advocate a temporary increase in tax of just one or two pence in the pound until the deficit is paid off, possibly more for those earning huge amounts.

In Margaret Thatcher’s day the income tax rate was over 30 per cent for a large part of her time in office. Increasing Income Tax does not just hit the poor, it hits everybody equally.

We cannot afford to continue this policy of austerity. We are losing skilled workers, closing libraries, living with inadequate support for disabled people and those with mental health problems. The list goes on I’m not an economist - perhaps 2p in the pound is insufficient but it would make a great difference and I’m not suggesting we return to the old Labour party liberality.

Under this austerity drive the economy is not thriving. Perhaps a change of policy, investing more in workers who pay tax, would help to grow the economy.

No political party dares to mention increasing income tax. I don’t believe a tax increase now has to be the start of a trend to higher and higher taxes. There would be far too much political pressure to reduce taxes as soon as the economy had recovered and the National Debt paid off.

At the moment our taxes are among the lowest in Europe and our Health Service is among the most underfunded in Europe. We can afford better than that. We are a rich country. We should be able to pay for basic council and other services without austerity leading to food banks and desperate poverty.

Deborah Wilkinson

Milnthorpe