MERVYN JONES (Letters, March 25) raises the important and complex housing crisis facing us all.

Nationally, 1.8 million people are on social housing waiting lists and 3,739 households were on York’s council housing waiting list in 2013. Decent homes is one of six headline policies to be included in the Green Party election manifesto.

Greens would begin tackling the housing crisis by building half a million new social rented homes nationally by 2020 and bringing empty homes back into use. We would reform landlord tax allowances to incentivise good practice rather than profit, starting with scrapping the mortgage interest tax allowance.

We would remove the caps on what local authorities can borrow to build new housing. Lifting this cap would allow 60,000 more homes to be built in five years.

We are building fewer homes now than during any previous peacetime. It is time to take action for the common good.

Ginnie Shaw, Green Party, PPC for York Outer, Derwent Mews, Osbaldwick, York.