Sir - Your article (February 15) on the tragic situation into which residential property developers have been thrust by the imposition of new planning requirements to make some of the affordable homes family-sized, brings tears to the eyes.

More importantly, it fails to point out some serious issues.

First, it makes the mistake of suggesting that land cost is fixed. The viability of any development project is a function of the proceeds of sales, construction costs, land price, and required profit.

If sale proceeds are constrained by imposed restrictions on the type and size of the properties, and construction costs and developers greed are fixed, land values adjust accordingly. The only problem lies with those developers who purchased over-priced land in expectation of less restrictive development. My heart bleeds for them. But not so much that planning policy needs changing.

Secondly, even if all new developments comprised ten or more homes, at the target rate proposed by the planners (550 houses per year), some poor souls on the 5,000-strong waiting list will still be waiting in 18 years.

The shortage of affordable housing is the consequence of political decisions 20 years ago (selling-off of council housing) - the free market can never provide adequate quantities of affordable housing, because of the large divergence in wealth.

Attempting to do so by manipulating planning policy is patently futile; worse, it is used to justify building unnecessary houses over most of the remaining green space in our city. If this is postponed by the tragic destitution of some developers, so much the better. Meanwhile, affordable housing needs to be purpose-built, by the not-for-profit sector.

Peter Thompson, Oxford