But to read Conservative Councillor Les Carter (YEP, August 4) giving the Labour Government stark warnings about the need for social housing is an object lesson in hypocrisy.

The housing crisis the country now faces is the direct result of Margaret Thatcher's scandalous sell-off of council houses in the 1980s.

The Conservatives' strategy was to buy up traditional Labour voters with massive discounts on the purchase of their council houses.

We were told this would create a property-owning democracy within a generation. As we know, it merely increased homelessness.

Coun Carter and his colleagues would be better served by getting Leeds City council to build social housing using public funds rather than rely on the private sector, which has consistently failed to build sufficient affordable homes.

Cliff Williams, Regional Secretary of UNISON


I was concerned to read the article in which the Executive Board Member for Housing and Neighbourhoods Coun Les Carter pleaded for more social housing.

There is no doubt in anyone's minds about the sheer scale of this problem. There is now a steady stream of homes attracting several hundred bids each week and its not just in Headingley. This highlights the complete lack of available social housing for individuals and families alike

But what has the ruling coalition actually done about the growing crisis over the past four years? Despite the promises of a thousand new affordable homes a year through its Affordable Housing Partnership, there was very little happening on the ground.

Councillors Andrew Carter, Les Carter and Richard Brett should look at how Jon Trickett as Leader of the Council in the early nineties actually delivered 4,000 new affordable homes instead of just talking about it.

This is a desperately important issue for residents of all parts of the city and on a number of occasions I have made it clear that I am happy on behalf of the Labour group to join with the coalition in lobbying for more resources to tackle our housing problems; I'm still waiting.

Coun Richard Lewis, Deputy Leader of the Labour Group


What would solve the city's council house crisis?

Well, there are several thousand houses in Headingley used as second homes for students. If these were returned to first homes for families, this would provide several years' worth of the housing that the government expects Leeds to deliver.

Richard Tyler, Leeds HMO Lobby