IT’S no surprise that our council chiefs appear to be banging their heads against a brick wall when it comes to the city’s housing and traffic woes. We keep hearing of different, and sometimes very creative, ideas to solve all of our problems.

Today’s story makes for somewhat depressing reading – half of all commuters travel into the city every day and the warning that traffic chaos we’ve seen in recent weeks could continue to get worse unless Oxford expands.

Add to that the latest average house price of an eye-watering £381,000 and it’s no wonder we’ve been hearing about underground tunnels and the like.

The comments from the city’s head of housing David Edwards will be of little consolation to the thousands of motorists who get caught up in miles of traffic on their journeys to work.

But the authorities must be realistic about the problem.

Unless they build more affordable homes people will continue to be priced out of the city. And while they are priced out and working here, they’ll have to drive in and clog up the roads. While the roads are clogged up it’ll put more people off living and working here.

Put simply if something radical is not done soon, it could lead to, as MP Andrew Smith warns, “economic suicide”. While building homes on Green Belt land is an option many see as a threat to our countryside, it’s perhaps the more realistic way of solving a problem threatening our economy.

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