Housing minister Yvette Cooper is spot on when she says county council leader Keith Mitchell's plans for housing are bonkers (Oxford Mail, June 20).

There is a desperate need for homes right across the South East.

In Oxford alone, we need about 1,750 new homes every year, for at least three years, to meet the housing crisis.

The other day, I opened the excellent Catalyst housing scheme on the old Temple Cowley Middle School site.

There are 111 flats for rent or part purchase, preserving the old school building, with a copse of trees, a green play area and a playing field next door.

The problem is that Oxford needs 16 such developments every year and we are building maybe two or three.

People are being forced out of Oxford and have to commute long distances, adding to congestion.

The good news is that every private housing development in the city now has to provide half the homes as lower-cost social housing.

But we must build many more homes, of all sorts, both on brownfield sites and by reviewing the Green Belt.

The trick, of course, is to build, as in the Temple Cowley example, in a way which improves Oxford and enhances our green spaces.

Tory Mr Mitchell should know that artificially holding back the housing market will never work.

It will only damage business, gentrify Oxford and leave thousands of families in misery and hardship. Bonkers indeed. John Tanner (Councillor), Lord Mayor of Oxford