Editor

I agree with much of the content of Dr Fitzgerald’s two letters - ‘Higher wages alone not enough’/’National homes debate needed’. However, I would suggest that it is unrealistic for Dr Fitzgerald to quote average house prices when using statistics to demonstrate affordability.

Surely first-time buyers would enter the market at the lower end of the price range, not the average, and in many cases a couple would be purchasing the property where both salaries would count towards the mortgage calculation. In a scenario where the property costs £100,000 - requiring a deposit of £15,000, a mortgage of £85,000, and using a price-to-income ratio of only 2.5 - the combined salary requirement for the mortgage would be £34,000 per annum (£24,285 if Dr Fitzgerald’s 3.5 ratio is used).

It is also too simplistic to state that “society has lost sight of the fact that houses should be homes rather than investments”. Millions of people in the UK use their properties as investments some in lieu of pensions, some as a means of income, and some to provide a cash lump sum to support their care in old age.

The issue of affordable housing is a nationwide problem. It is not confined to Mid and North Wales where average house prices are among the lowest in the UK. It is most acute in London and South-East England. In the case of London, 700,000 people earn less than the Living Wage and house prices are four times that of North Wales!

I agree with Dr Fitzgerald on the definition of “being local”. Many Welsh people have properties in other parts of the UK because of work commitments. Purchasing a second home in Wales allows them to own a piece of their homeland or as Dr Fitzgerald suggests “where your heart lies”. Owners of property in Wales are all “locals” if they contribute to the community and most importantly to the local economy.

People from Liverpool and Cheshire have owned properties in North Wales for hundreds of years and likewise people from North Wales have lived in Merseyside for hundreds of years. Indeed many North Walians have closer ties - family and economic - to Liverpool than they do to Cardiff.

The affordable housing issue has unfortunately now been hijacked by nationalist politicians whose anti-English rhetoric over second-home ownership is a disgrace.

• Vered Rutter’s long list of negative comments in the anti-Brexit letter last week (‘Why apologise for telling the truth?’) are purely personal opinions and lack context.

Vered Rutter does not provide the context to the statement, “Money will stop coming into Wales from the EU. Wales has benefitted from a yearly sum of £680 million”. In 2018, the UK paid a net £15.5 billion into the EU budget. Within this figure, £4.5 billion was paid back to the UK public sector, including a £2.2 billion Agricultural Guarantee Fund. So guess where the £680 million yearly sum actually came from? Correct, the Welsh and English taxpayers!

The letter states that: “Welsh farmers export 90 per cent of their lamb to the EU”. In fact Welsh farmers sell five per cent of their lamb in Wales and 60 per cent to the rest of the UK. The remaining 35 per cent is exported, 90 per cent of which goes to the EU. So in reality about 32 per cent goes to the EU, not 90 per cent!

John Rees Moss Bala

Have your say on the local issues affecting you - email [email protected] or join in the conversation on our Facebook page