Sir – I notice that councillor Ed Turner sees the new right-to-buy legislation as “a tremendous boost for profiteering landlords on the backs of people in housing need” and fears that it will “encourage [...] the stripping of social assets”.
Yes, indeed, when there is a housing shortage and Oxford residents are being priced out of the market.
But wait. On January 19 this year, an article in The Oxford Times pointed out that overseas buyers make up 45 per cent of purchasers of Oxford property over £2.5m and that “many of the houses are being bought as second homes or as investment properties, and are not being lived in for much of the year”.
Can this be the same Councillor Ed Turner, therefore, who was quoted in that article as saying approvingly that: “it would be surprising if people with a lot of money did not want to add a home in Oxford to their ski chalet in St Moritz or their beach home in St Tropez”?
Do these councillors ever listen to themselves? Do their electors, desperate to find somewhere to live, listen to what they say?
Dr Katy Jennison, Witney
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