Help with housing market
Not surprisingly, Plaid's David Thomas (letters, 14 March) shows a lamentable lack of knowledge of the basic economic reality of supply and demand.
There is no mystery why house prices are rising: 200,000 extra people are demanding a house each year while only 160,000 new homes are being built under Labour.
The inevitable result of this excess of demand over supply is a rise in prices. It's called inflation in a more general context.
Plaid's simplistic answer to a complex problem is to provide a grant of £5,000 (£10,000 for couples) to help. Quite apart from where this money would come from, the result of it would simply be a further increase in demand, followed by even higher prices.
Help can be given to first time buyers but it will only be effective if it's also matched by changes in the supply of housing.
That is why we must reverse the decrease under Labour from £98.6m in 1996/7 under the last Conservative government to £86.4m in 2006/7 for social and affordable homes.
The Welsh Conservative Party believes that shared equity schemes, including Homebuy, must be made more widely available.
Planning authorities should also be more effectively encouraged to promote affordability through mixed community development.
More attention needs to be given to the need to provide affordable housing in rural areas.
The need for such housing would be a core element of the Welsh Conservative Party's
housing strategy.
Far too many homes are in a poor state of repair. In short, it's a policy that's needed not a sound-bite.
John Bell, Welsh Assembly candidate for Clywd South, Wrexham
