I WAS glad to read Ms Ridge’s response to my letter in last week’s Advertizer.

She rightly makes many good points regarding the construction of new, affordable housing and the effect this can have on surrounding areas, such as reduced drainage leading to an increased amount of flooding.

I wonder, then, if a good way to introduce more affordable housing to our society might be to refurbish old buildings, many of which may be listed.

An old, listed building is beautiful, but it is jarring to see beautiful old townhouses in the same communities as rough sleepers.

Obviously I am not suggesting just putting rough sleepers in these buildings, but investing and refitting these lovely old places so they can be a part of the community’s present as well as its past.

I also decided to research the EU settlement scheme.

The UK council for international student affairs gave me this information, stating ‘The EU settlement scheme is designed to offer EU, non-EU EEA and Swiss citizens living in the UK before the end of the transition period (...) the opportunity to protect their residence in the UK after the transition period.’

I can see this is designed for people who already reside in the UK, so would have limited impact on the available housing, for example.

I am amused at Ms Ridge’s suggestion I would like to pay her taxes.

Quite right; I do need a job earning over a certain threshold before I would be capable of that.

But even without a job, as I am at the moment, I would still be happy to pay a contribution towards giving hungry children food, as I recognise that the contribution each taxpayer makes towards this is miniscule, while the difference it can make to people’s lives and futures is immense.

Despite clear differences in opinion, I always enjoy reading and writing dialogue in the Letters page, so thank you Advertizer for this!

I would also like to second Rev. Rennie’s excellently-put open letter to Owen Paterson; again, despite differences in opinion, many of us share the same frustrations with our local and national government, and it is only right that we can air our grievances.

Erin Hudson,

Llanforda Rise