I NOTED two very interesting pieces in your September 28 edition. One was an article about the rough sleeper mission in Bournemouth and a charity called Second Chance which helps support rough sleepers in Bournemouth. They have recently launched a Wednesday drop in at St Paul’s Hostel to offer support on housing and benefit advice. What a great and practical help to those with no homes.

There was also a very interesting letter from Robin Sequeira stating that planning laws do nothing whatsoever “to produce homes for local people or those on low incomes”. He also said “‘more and more Green Belt is being concreted over but the housing crisis continues unabated”. He is so right.

Under the Freedom of Information Act recently I was sent copies of the East Dorset (not Christchurch) planning agreements for 2016 and 2017. During these two years there were only two developments which included ‘affordable’ homes:

1) Bloor Homes in their development of land to the east of Cranborne Road, Wimborne, built 64 dwellings, 15 ‘affordable’.

2) Linden Homes had planning permission for 65 homes on the east side of Ringwood Road, Verwood, of which 50 per cent (34) were to be ‘affordable’. I believe some of these are flats, not houses, but at least it’s 50 per cent.

This makes a grand total of 49 ‘affordable’ homes in two years in East Dorset – a lot of developments are of 10 or 11 homes which seem to avoid having to provide low cost homes.

No wonder the housing list gets longer and longer. The East Dorset District Council are failing those trying desperately to get a foot on the ladder. Homes are too expensive and the deposits are too large for local people on low incomes, and this needs to change. They need to change the guidelines from 50 per cent affordable (or whatever the figure is now) to 100 per cent, with permission not granted for anything less than this. There is a surfeit of expensive luxury homes, and a real scarcity of ‘affordable’ homes.

LESLEY EVE, Dewlands Park, Verwood