After 64 years’ worth of elections, it would be a pity to change my voting habits. But if the Labour party under Keir Starmer campaigns with a manifesto including a housing policy as outlined, I will (Labour plans to allow local authorities to buy land cheaply for development, 29 May). To give local councils (or anybody else) “sweeping new powers” to use compulsory purchase orders to buy land cheaply could well create more division and negative community spirit.
It would also result in the loss of even more agricultural land to tarmac and concrete. The present speed of conversion of good, food-growing land to concrete is unsustainable; a government’s first priority should be to make our country as near self-sufficient in food as possible.
Nick Ridley
Banbury, Oxfordshire
• Promising to be the “builders not the blockers” might be good electioneering, but suggests that Labour is attempting to sidestep carbon budgets when making its policies. If new housing is to be added to the existing surplus (currently about one million more dwellings than households) it must be right to focus on registered providers building houses on cheaper land, preferably at social rent. But the proposed 300,000 new dwellings a year would result in emissions that would exceed the carbon budget for the whole of the economy.
The crisis is caused by the grossly unfair distribution of housing and, in particular, underoccupation at unsustainable levels. As underoccupation is also a main cause in the closing of local schools (More than 90 English primary schools to close or face closure for lack of pupils, 29 May), this is where Labour should be focusing its attention.
Daniel Scharf
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
• The rebuilding of our infrastructure and Labour’s £28bn-a-year green prosperity plan need not be in conflict (Starmer urged to use some of Labour’s £28bn green fund for other spending, 1 June). The party can be radical and insist that new housing, hospitals, schools and transport are developed under net zero principles. The quality of our public services define us as a nation and they should not ignore the challenges of climate change.
Warren Brown
Ilkley, West Yorkshire
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