I read Cllr Iain Sharpe’s recent letter “building up is the only way we can go” with interest. I have an enormous sympathy for the problems facing Watford Borough Council in the face of Government housing policy. But, my main concern is more fundamental – what I cannot understand is why the Government is setting the housing policy that it is, when what we need in this country is less housing, not more.

There has long been a recognition that more roads simply mean more traffic and I draw parallels with housing. More housing brings more people. If we didn’t have places for people to live, fewer people would migrate to the UK and more people may emigrate. This would help us bring the UK population into some kind of sustainable balance and, if the same principle were applied to Watford, the Watford population – or indeed that of any town or city.

Why then do we have the housing policy that we do? I look at the current Tory party and see an awful lot of MPs who have an interest in property. There are many landlords and those with an interest in building companies in their ranks. There are also those who own large tracts of agricultural land – with an aggressive house building policy, land can be changed from greenbelt or agricultural to development land more easily – and, simultaneously dramatically increases land values – it makes wealthy landowners even wealthier. And, there are many £’s making their way to Tory Party HQ from developers and property companies. Therefore, to have an active house building and development policy serves landowners and housebuilders nicely – most of whom happen to be Tories.

House building also acts as the Tory default strategy to fight recession. We hear cries of “we will build our way out of recession” and similar, frequently from the Tories. To me, this isn’t real entrepreneurial change, this is selling off the family silver of houses with gardens, green spaces, school sports fields and agricultural land.

In summary, I don’t know what drives the Tory housing policy, but it seems that it may serve them very well to facilitate development – particularly in towns like Watford. Whatever the reason, the local councillors have little option but to allow the developers their way, despite the fact that it is detrimental to the quality of life in Watford for residents.

Tim Wyatt

By email