Coun Simpson-Laing (Growing concern, Letters, May 8) does have a bit of a bee in her bonnet when the subject of affordable housing raises its head (usually, it must be said, by her).

I wonder if this might be an example of “the lady doth protest too much”.

I don’t for one moment doubt her integrity or sincerity but Tracy is, of course, a political animal and they tend to water at the same hole, the one supplied, in her case, by the tributaries of the mighty “Whitehall”.

The gist of the councillor’s view, and by definition a reflection of that of the Labour administration, is that the provision of this type of housing is the remit of the private sector.

I don’t need to argue that this policy will fail; it is self-evident it has. At regular intervals the Labour spokesperson for housing tells us so.

An old joke tells of a tourist asking directions of a village idiot and being told: “If I was going there I wouldn’t have started here,” and this is the approach that needs to be applied to this problem. The only way to encourage private developers to build mixed-use housing is to make it financially attractive to them.

I’m not to sure how easy it will be to deal with the problem of private owner versus tenant friction. However, people do have a penchant for getting along once they know each other better.

Richard Bowen, Farrar Street, York.