Peter Baillie, Southampton Conservative councillor, (Letters 22 June) uses words such as ‘pathetic’, and ‘disgraceful’, regarding the Labour Council’s housing record.

We must not be diverted from apportioning blame for the truly deplorable housing situation in this country after 11 years of Conservative rule.

He wants us to forget the Tories’ disastrous ‘Right To Buy’ scheme, which effectively gave our fine council homes to property speculators, disallowing money from these sales to renew councils’ housing stock.

This was followed by 10 years of austerity, crippling local authorities’ ability to build much needed homes.

Now, the government’s refusal to extend the eviction ban is creating anxiety and despair for renters and will lead to more homelessness. There are more than 7,000 Southampton people desperate for homes.

Peter Baillie condemns Labour’s promises on housing delivery yet ignores the Conservatives’ outrageous lies over housing. Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found that successive Conservative governments have failed to deliver a single new starter home despite promising to build 200,000 by 2020.

In spite of promises, they have completed just 6,287 social homes in 2019 across the whole of the UK.

The Conservatives have no interest in building affordable or social homes. They are concerned only with pushing up house prices for home owning Tory voters, offering incentives exclusively to the better-off.

Peter Baillie says that, “there is not enough building to help provide homes to Southampton residents who are desperate for homes”.

There are two current housing projects in the centre of Southampton. Not one affordable home! There should be 35 per cent. The developers say that, “it would not be viable to provide affordable homes as part of this project”, as reported in the Echo. What they mean is that they want to maximise their profit, not benefit those who need homes in our city.

What are Peter Baillie and his Conservative members going to do about affordable and social housing in Southampton? I’ll not hold my breath waiting for the results of his “inspirational home building programme” any more than I will for Johnson’s promises on social care.

Glyn Oliver

Southampton