Sir - So its official ! The Worcester News poll suggests the faithful city is devoted to fiscal prudence.

In fact if there was to be a shortlist for Chancellor of the Exchequer it would seem this is the place to send the talent scouts.

People of my vintage remember the days when people waited for tomorrow for what they want today but I would urge some humility about the real situation as regards national debt and the funding of services or even the subisiding of wages and rent payments.

The country will remain perilously indebted and great swathes of the working population are dependent on tax credits and housing benefits to get by.

Many public buildings such as hospitals have been provided by private finance initiatives which makes for a rough deal for the nation and a nice little earner for the private funders for decades.

We are up to our neck in it and tend to forget that the real reason for the 2008 global catastrophe was bankers and not the indisputable excesses of our own public expenditure.

That said there is something refreshing about a collective sense of responsibility that says lets 'pay the debts off' as if Mrs. Thatchers housewife balancing the books analogy was realistic but surely we should remember debt is inevitable as is a certain amount of subsidy. Public services are not businesses and much of what is provided is essential and compulsory for the community to function.

Recently the government wanted an expansion in the pay day loan market and we all know about the of the rise of the food banks.

Much wealth is generated in Britain but rather too much is in too few hands and so often hived away in clever tax avoidance strategies.

And be assured Worcester City Council will end up in more debt quite rapidly if the 3 million is used to pay the present one. It is just today's traffic on a balance sheet in the real scheme of things

Andrew Brown,

WORCESTER