Holloway Prison

• WELL done to Barry Edwards for highlighting the chronic shortage of affordable housing and the historic reasons behind it (Battle over Holloway Prison site homes pits people against money, November 10).

His comments have given me a painful reminder of Margaret Thatcher’s toxic policy that led to the demise of social housing. I can never deny that many people were liberated by their right-to-buy opportunity but whatever happened
to the succession plan?

Was it not glaringly obvious to Thatcher that millions of new social homes would be needed by successive generations? Why were they never replaced in sufficient numbers? Was it a right-to-buy votes rather than a right-to-buy homes?

This is yet another example of a Tory-led trend to prioritise short-term greed over long-term need. Surely the government’s priority has always been to prepare us all for the very long term and to evaluate all possible scenarios.

But clearly not for David Cameron, who was so complacent about the Brexit vote that the civil service wasn’t even given a chance to prepare for a plan B.

We could now be heading towards another catastrophe if the Ministry of Justice chooses to contradict its own name by prioritising profit over social justice when it sells off its prison sites.

As Barry points out, the redevelopment of the Holloway Prison site is pivotal to the future of social housing. We have one, and only one, chance to rescue Holloway from super-gentrific­ation.

If the Tory government cannot recognise there is a need for affordable housing and sustainable support chains within inner cities then it is rotten to the core.

IAN SHACKLOCK
Monsell Road, N4