LIKE Julian Cole I also have some sympathy with the Keep York Local party and like Mr Cole I am an "incomer".

Although I have a long association with York, I still cannot claim to be "local".

I think that it is unfair to blame all incomers for York's problems (well, I would, wouldn't I?) People do buy properties when they have to move for work (although I wasn't able to) and you can't blame them for that.

The damage is done by people who buy property they then do not live in, for example holiday homes or buy-to-let houses and flats.

In our area of York many of the cheaper properties have been snapped up by greedy landlords who let these out at high rents and don't always maintain very well.

There ought to be stiffer financial disincentives to owning multiple properties. But this will never happen because so much of our economy is based on the mad spiralling of property prices - oh , and of course, our MPs all seem to own so many homes.

Dr Richard Greaves,

Morehall Close, York.

Updated: 08:54 Saturday, September 03, 2005