Sir, Many young people would like to remain in their communities and buy their own home, just as their parents did before them. Unfortunately, with house prices continuing to rise in Oxfordshire, this is only a dream for people even on a decent wage. We need more affordable housing in both our towns and villages, but the policies of both the government and our district councils are making this more difficult.

On larger housing developments, the Vale of White Horse District Council plans to reduce the proportion of affordable housing to 35 per cent. Meanwhile, village developments of five or more houses are currently required to include affordable housing, but the government has recently increased the threshold to ten. This is disastrous for enabling affordable housing in villages because most developments in them are smaller than that. Villages must not become ghettos of the well-off.

The district councils can choose to return the threshold to five within the North Wessex Downs and Chilterns Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

It is imperative that both South Oxfordshire and the Vale councils, which are currently deciding their policies, do just that to ensure that our villages remain vibrant communities with residents of all ages and incomes. They should also be lobbying government to enable the threshold to be set locally.

Stephen Webb

East Hendred