YET again Tracey Simpson-Laing writes about the affordable housing situation (Letters, November 23).

The way housing benefit is being cut, in future low income families will be housed in B&B accommodation or a room in a shared house.

But you won’t see many in York, they will have to move to places like Hull and Blackpool where rents are lower.

As for housing the elderly, average life expectancy is now falling along with living standards. No wonder, given the cutbacks to the NHS and welfare spending.

Our national debt stands at £1.527 trillion and rising, so the government is proposing even bigger cuts to spending tantamount to the systematic dismantling of the welfare state and the NHS.

In these circumstances, I don’t see how this country can take many more refugees. If we cannot feed and house our own poor we should not be bringing in more from abroad.

Yes, we are a wealthy country, but unfortunately that wealth is not fairly shared. That may well be a negative view, but it is the harsh reality we face.

Peter Broadley, Main Street, Holtby, York