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Green belt erosion

New immigration statistics for the year to June have been released. Although EU migration has fallen, non-EU net migration has risen to the highest level since 2004, doubling since 2013.

Deltapoll recently found immigration is still a major public concern – two major concerns being the pressure on the NHS and pressure on schools.

Pew Research estimates that in 2017, there was between 800,000 and 1.2 million illegal immigrants here, more than Germany.

Various former top Home Office personnel have made similar estimates.

Labour’s radical conference resolutions were followed up with meaningless waffle on how they planned to deal with immigration with the leadership contradicting themselves at every turn.

Meanwhile the Conservatives keep talking about an Australian-style points-based system. They don’t seem to realise that a crucial part of the Aussie immigration system is a cap on work permits.

That is something that the Conservatives are proposing to abolish.

Without any cap on work permits, the inflow would be essentially uncontrolled and risks being uncontrollable.

Three-quarters of the public have recently said that the UK is already overcrowded. The government has simply stopped listening.

The current rate of UK net immigration is equivalent to 20 full planes landing here each week.

The price? More erosion or end of green belts and open green spaces.

Jeff Adams, Bloomsbury, Swindon

Growing inequality

Andy Turner’s letter calling for a Tory vote rests on the unemployment rate left by previous Labour governments.

He fails to mention the record of the Conservative governments which have left office with higher rates of unemployment than they inherited, including the disastrous stretch from 1979-97.

Andy wisely avoids any mention of crumbling infrastructure under the Tories or the growing inequality, with the wealth share shifting ever more towards the rich, while wages stagnate.

He concludes: “Fix the money and fix everything else”.

As a more accurate slogan for the Tories this requires editing to: “Fix the money firmly into the bank accounts of the rich and screw everyone else”.

Peter Smith, Woodside Avenue, Swindon

Desperate shortage

In reply to Peter Smith (SA, Dec 5) the reason for fighting the Second World War was that Britain wanted to stay an independent country.

The defeat of Adolf Hitler involved alliances with many countries and of course that included both United States and Russia.

The struggle for survival today involves breaking free of the EU because EU membership has created a desperate shortage of houses in Britain.

The housing shortage not only affects the young people of today but also it affects all future generations.

Supporters of the EU do not realise the misery that we are inflicting upon the all the future generations of young British people that are yet to be born.

Steve Halden, Beaufort Green