I WAS delighted to see the dramatic collapse of the false claims that we need a further 100,000 homes in Oxfordshire by 2031 (Oxford Mail, September 18).

This vindicates the objections of campaigning groups all over this County resisting the wrong houses, in the wrong places at incredibly inflated prices.

However, this does not mean that the new target of 68,000 homes set by the latest Government estimates is either right or actually attainable: First, the quickest way to obtain the social housing we need has always been by purchasing homes for sale, not by waiting for developers to provide them.

Secondly, the 73 per cent underoccupation of housing identified in the Strategic Market Housing Assessment in 2014 has still to be the subject of a concerted effort by councils.

Homes with three to four bedrooms and only one or two occupants could be formally divided, as Daniel Scharf has sagely suggested in these pages, or people could voluntarily provide lodgings.

Thirdly, since over half of our construction workforce is overseas born we should be concerned about the declining numbers of EU citizens returning to the UK recently.

If Brexit, and evidence of a less tolerant society in crime figures, results in even fewer construction workers then development in Oxfordshire will slow down even more than at present.

The Foreign Office shortage occupation list indicates we are short of every type of construction skill already.

In short, with a contraction in economic growth and a high risk of loss of EU citizen skills back to continental Europe, 68,000 new homes completed by 2031 in Oxfordshire seems just as improbable as 100,000 did.

STEVE DAWE Bulan Road, Oxford