WE are being told the number of new homes being built plunged by 27 per cent. Not in my area it hasn't as new homes are springing up like mushrooms, overcrowding areas and at prices which locals cannot afford. They are spoiling the town (ie one building knocked down and a block of flats put up in its place). This has been allowed to take place in quite a few places.

Talk about the slums of the future and they are not so well built as the 1947 house I live in, that's for sure. If they stay up for 30 years it will be a miracle!

Not only that, but with the recession I cannot really see much of the new housing being bought. So most will stand empty for sometime.

If they were council built for local people in the first place I wouldn't have a problem with it.

This tells us that when push came to shove, the council failed to house local people.

TERESA RUMSEY, Lymington.