A better housing plan

SIR – Sajid Javid’s plan to build more homes in expensive areas (report, September 15) won’t bring down prices: it will simply increase the number of expensive houses in those areas. Developers will protect the sale prices of their houses and land banks by never releasing more homes than they can sell.

Two things are needed to make houses affordable: first, an increase in interest rates to quell the ongoing flood of investment money into assets (with property being top of the list); second, a dramatic cut in stamp duty, which is a huge barrier for first-time buyers, job-movers and downsizers, and which prevents the efficient allocation of property. David Bartholomew

Henley-on-thames, Oxfordshire