Sir – In response to South Oxfordshire District Council’s public consultation in regard to their Core Strategy Review, keeping the housing figures stipulated in the South East Plan under the aegis of ‘filling a need’ is no longer relevant or economically pertinent.

This so-called ‘need’ is based on surveys and housing requirement forecasts that were drawn up over ten years ago. These are now out of date.

There is no longer any desperate need to build thousands of new houses: many of the immigrant workforce who came with the economic building boom are now returning home, and these figures assume a continued and rapid economic growth (with subsequent housing shortage) at pre 2009 levels. With economic cut backs ever present on the horizon, and local governments feeling the pinch, it it irresponsible now to push for more and more expansion.

We need to pull back and consolidate, improve on what we have got, rather than just build voraciously ad infinitum.

Government should call a moratorium on all new large-scale housing development plans, especially in the South East, concentrating instead on supporting small scale, locally relevant housing schemes that address real existing shortages.

No more hypothetical projections or speculative developments.

No more land grab by city councils (eg Oxford). No more sneaky chunks out of Green Belt land. No more tack-ons.

No more out-of-town commercial/shopping ‘opportunities’ that kill off our city centres (Northern Gateway, Oxford). By restricting over-expansion we will keep our local identity.

Respect the local vernacular, the environmental and historical context, and scale before imposing national blanket-style housing solutions.

Less bolstering of the greenfield building industry, and more support for the conservation, brownfield regeneration lobby. To use an old adage: “Less is more!” (Mies van de Rohe).

N. Mallows (Mrs), Gresswell Environment Trust, Stanton St John