Anna Waite (Jan 5) is certainly right in campaigning for more homes in Southend.

Without some significant new provision the conversion of quite unsuitable premises into small flats and bedsit units will continue.

The condition of some tenants in this sort of accommodation can be quite desperate, whatever licensing or scrutiny arrangements are put in place.

Mrs Waite is also right to say high-rise blocks are the obvious solution.

Sadly we no longer have enough land for family homes with gardens, and tall buildings for flats are quite usual in Europe and beyond where space is short.

The usual pattern, however, is to have these well on the outskirts of towns rather than in the central area.

Residential developments in Victoria Avenue will naturally command premium rents, not helpful to families on low or average incomes and the unedifying spectacle of Heath House, fully visible from the Civic Centre, is a stark reminder of the problems of providing affordable housing in such areas.

In the same issue were reports on retail and traffic plans and these, like housing initiatives, require funding that we in Southend cannot provide for ourselves.

I fear that the Coalition will be just as ungenerous to our town as the previous Government was.

Denis Garne
Central Avenue
Southend

...Southend has grandiose schemes for the seafront, pier, Garons Park, football stadiums, the airport, etc.

Yet when it comes to housing, the only offer on the table is the vile prospect of high-rise blocks. What an insult!

These buildings are synonymous with workhouses these days, seen as places from which there is no escape and something to be avoided at all costs.

We are already overburdened with high blocks of flats in the town and the prospect of more will fill many with horror.

Mrs Waite has been quite clear about where these blocks shouldn’t be located (the nicer parts of town) as they would “stick out like a sore thumb”.

The existing tower blocks already do this and we do not want them added to!

Furthermore, a number of schools are battling against an increase in pupil numbers and densely populated additional tower blocks will only exacerbate the current situation.

We need appropriate accommodation of all types if we are to begin to address the housing problem in this area. A problem which successive portfolio holders have failed to address.

Mrs Waite’s opening gambit when taking up her current post was that “we can’t build our way out of this situation”.

My belief is that is exactly what we have to do and soon. But we have to build the right types of homes.

Anne Jones
Hastings Road
Southend