Sir, A few weeks ago, the Government announced a tranche of investment for Oxfordshire, including some for the development of scientific research and development and some for infrastructure improvements and for repairing the county’s roads.

You publish letters objecting to nearly all new housing developments. They argue that the local infrastructure, particularly the road system, is inadequate and that the developments should not go ahead unless improvements are made first to stop traffic congestion getting worse.

This is not reasonable in the current climate. Despite the one-off Government grant, we have an austerity programme and must face the consequences.

More spending on infrastructure would mean higher taxes which the present Government will not accept; it is not clear that a different Government would accept them either. There are a lot of other calls on the transport budget, including maintaining and repairing existing roads. Road improvements and new road schemes might have to have lower priority; meanwhile, new housing developments should still go ahead.

These developments are not Government funded – most of the houses will be sold privately and some will be available as affordable housing. They should not be stopped because the Government is short of cash.

This means that the existing congestion has to be accepted and may have to get worse. Incidentally, more new houses would mean more householders paying council tax, giving local councils a bit more money. The new householders would have votes and might press for that money to be spent on roads.

Peter Smith Bostock Road Abingdon