SIR - Councillors opposing the plans to build thousands of new homes in Worcestershire are absolutely right to question whether the infrastructure would be put in place to serve this burgeoning population.

That is not the only legitimate question that might be posed. Now, a very considerable proportion of house purchases are buy to let, a situation which has an effect on house price inflation and contributes to keeping first-time buyers out of the market.

Many who buy to let are, understandably, speculating for their own pension but it comes at the expense of the dreams, hopes and aspirations of would-be entrants to the property ladder.

The country is now open for hundreds of thousands of people from the new EU countries to come here and this too has an affect on the availability of housing.

And as regards Worcester directly, what about the expansion of the university? That anticipated and staged increase in student numbers will further stimulate the buy-to-let market.

In the last 10 years, house prices have trebled but wages have not anywhere near doubled. There is a growing generation of millions of people who will never be able to buy their own homes no matter how hard they work.

Even if the 47,000 homes are built in Worcestershire they will not meet the needs of a substantial part of the population, aside from the strain on the local infrastructure.

There are no easy answers. But a start would be to build more social housing and place some hurdles in the way of the carpet-bagging culture of buy to let, such as some effective rent restrictions.

Underpinning all decisions about these issues should be an understanding that housing is the bedrock on which families and personal security and development rely.

Housing is far too important to allow it to be left only to the marketplace.

Andrew Brown, Worcester.