Funding needs to be provided for more social housing and councils need to stop selling them off - Yorkshire Post Letters

The government needs to provide sufficient funding for local authorities to build more social or what was known as 'council houses' and reverse the decision to sell to long standing tenants to maintain a housing stock for future generations.

This would gradually reduce the housing waiting list and arguably save local authorities money spent by renting temporary accommodation in hotels to accommodate homeless families.

With the high cost of building materials for building new houses I do not believe for one minute that those local authorities who sell houses generate enough income to build the same numbers sold.

In order to achieve energy efficiency targets, set by the government, for home owners to rightly save money on fuels, and thus help tackle climate change, materials such as pre- manufactured insulation boards add substantially to building cost.

I would like to see more bungalows built to help to accommodate the needs of elderly people who find it difficult to live in two or three storey houses.

Some elderly people may consider 'downsizing' to a one or two bed bungalow or house, which would free up larger three and four bedroom family size houses.

If modern architects designed more windows in roof spaces, this would provide more natural light, which is comforting, especially on sunny days when there is a blue sky, even in the depths of winter on a clear frosty day in January.

Communal social housing needs to provide sufficient space for families to dry their clothes, whether it is outside, or a drying room which would, I believe, prevent the build up of black mould spores in bathrooms and bedrooms.

It is difficult to get the message across to a young couple with small children that the bedroom with the clothes in for drying, needs ventilation to prevent mould, especially when they are struggling to heat their house.

I can hear them saying why waste money heating a couple of rooms and have two windows open for ‘air flow’.

All post war houses built had coal fires both downstairs and upstairs which provided a natural air circulation.

Modern well insulated houses heated by either gas, oil, heat pumps or log burners don't have this natural air flow if at least two windows are not opened in the day.