I agree with Simon Jenkins’s overall message that England’s rural communities desperately need low-cost and affordable homes to rent and buy (David Cameron failed to foist new houses on rural areas. Why does Keir Starmer think he’ll succeed?, 18 July). But beyond that he seems to dive down a whole string of rabbit holes, such as 80% of British students expecting “the luxury of living away from home” – the implication being that students should not be enabled to make a first move towards independence. And then he rails against onshore wind turbines.
To say that the Conservatives failed to foist new houses on rural areas is wrong. It was their national planning policy framework that unleashed rampant executive housebuilding of four- and five-bedroom homes on villages and towns across rural England.
