Obscene bonuses

THE failure by successive governments to provide low- cost housing has allowed the directors of building company Persimmon to take obscene bonuses.

This is largely due to the Government’s Help to Buy scheme and controversial leasehold deals.

Persimmon plans to build 16,000 houses next year, but to provide bonuses for executives will cost £800 million.

The Government should scrap the Help to Buy scheme and start a wholescale building programme to provide low-cost houses that doesn’t allow developers to walk away with extraordinary profits. A. J. M. CRUICKSHANK,

Peebles, Tweeddale.