Affordable homes wrong way
The issue of affordable housing is always close to the top of the political agenda these days. A recent report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation stated that the Government should greatly increase the number of houses to be built in Britain, with a large proportion being "affordable".
This will have a devastating impact upon our rural environment with the majority of the new builds being on greenfield sites.
Housing Minister Ruth Kelly's department is pushing hard for more and more housing, but Mrs Kelly herself actively campaigns against such developments in her own Bolton West constituency. This is hypocrisy at the highest levels of New Labour. No surprise there.
The fundamental problem about affordable homes is that once they are purchased by first-time buyers, they immediately enter the normal housing market pricing structure and become "unaffordable".
This will therefore require another batch of new affordable homes to be built to satisfy the next round of first-time buyers.
The process will be never ending until either our population begins to decline or we have concreted over every last inch of our once green and pleasant land.
The real answer is to encourage joint ownership arrangements between friends, family or with a Government grant scheme.
Removing stamp duty would help too. However, people can't expect the right to their own home at any cost to the environment.
Roman Jones, Dolforwyn, Powys
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