John Harris’s article (House prices are crumbling – and so is Britain’s faith in property ownership, 5 March) provides a timely contrast with the letter from Peggy Seeger (2 March). John describes the pitiful number of council houses being built in England, and hence the worsening housing crisis, with millions unable to afford their own home. Peggy describes a proposal by Oxford city council to build 32 houses in Iffley village, Oxford, as “ecocide” and “a crime”. I know this housing proposal is unpopular with many locally: it is one reason I lost my Labour Oxford city seat in 2021, in the adjoining council ward to Iffley. The very same opponents would often say the housing crisis is Oxford’s biggest problem.
I appreciate the need for biodiversity, but the council proposes to “translocate protected species” in the proposed development. This is not ecocide. Surely people, particularly those who own their own homes outright, need to weigh in the balance the needs of those requiring housing? Satisfying Peggy’s argument that this development is an example of a “‘growth’ agenda to which we have become addicted” would mean stopping almost all housebuilding, and making it even more difficult to address the housing crisis.
Richard Tarver
Oxford
