A shortage of affordable housing is linked to EU freedom of movement

SIR – Your front page (August 6) carried adjacent reports about Brexit negotiations and pressure on the green belt. There seems to be a Chinese Wall between discussion of the EU and of housing shortages.

Whatever trade-off the Government makes between the near-desperate shortage of affordable housing in much of England and the wish to protect the countryside, the equation is bleak indeed if the population continues to soar.

That growth is fed by net migration equivalent to the population of the city of Liverpool every year. Almost half of net migration over the past decade has been from the EU.

That is why ending free movement of people with the EU is the most important aspect of our current negotiation. It seems Brussels will not budge on access to the customs union unless we concede free movement.

If that proves to be the case, we should settle for a Canadian-style free-trade agreement, or even WTO rules, to retake control of our borders. The alternative is to chew up more and more countryside each year to accommodate population growth, before building a single house to ease the plight of our own aspirant homeowners and tenants. Sir Julian Brazier

Canterbury, Kent

SIR – The Campaign to Protect Rural England is right (“Developers ‘gobbling up green belt for unaffordable housing’,” August 6).

Travelling around rural parts of England and Wales, each year I see more and more villages and small towns with ever-increasing housing developments.

Where I live we have hit the government target of 1,400 houses but developers still plan to build another 750. Like most developments this new housing is built on good productive farmland. Cash-strapped councils cannot afford to fight these extra planning applications in court.

Green belt and farmland should be far better protected. Green spaces are there for food production and tourism as well as clean air. We will soon need every acre of productive agricultural land to feed our growing population. Suzanne Greenhill

Bishops Cleeve, Gloucestershire

SIR – House prices are determined by supply and demand, and we need to build more homes in areas where the average price is above the national average price, which according to government figures is £227,871.

Oxted is in the district of Tandridge, which has the highest percentage of green belt of any local authority: 94 per cent. The average price of a house in Oxted is £500,000 or approximately 120 per cent more than the national average.

Reducing green belt land will help to reduce housing costs in areas where it is difficult to recruit key workers due to the cost of living. New houses also need to be within walking distance of schools, shops and public transport Josh Cosnett

Oxted, Surrey