Reader's Letter Of The Day

From today's Evening Standard:

Jenny Thomas [Letters, February 15] claims that London tenants have "unrealistic expectations" and that owning their home home is not "their entitlement".

For most of the 20the century, the UK has a bundle of policies which kept house prices down while squeezing out private landlords. The inevitable result was precisely as intended - a massive increase in the number of owner-occupiers.

And yes, people did see this as "their entitlement" - it is precisely this entitlement that recent governments have snatched away.

Mark Wadsworth, Young People's Party.

I'd mark myself down for using the same word ("precisely") twice, but apart from that, it came out OK.

Oddly Edited Reader's Letter Of The Day.

From The Evening Standard:

Zac Goldsmith grabbed headlines with his claim that a fare freeze by Transport for London would mean a 59 per cent increase in council tax [February 9].

However, anyone who reads the article will see that the true increase would be 17 per cent. Even his claim that the fare freeze would add £175 to an average council tax bill is deeply flawed.

[Missing third para, explaining that the required annual council tax increase would be more like £33.]

This seems like a sensible option to me, especially if the increase were targeted at the super-expensive homes in Zones 1 and 2 who pay the least toward TfL while getting the best value from it.

Mark Wadsworth, Young People's Party.