"Deadline 2021 for a new town" (The Argus, January 18) correctly highlights the possibility of a new town development in the county but misses the full breadth of its implications and is incorrect to simply pinpoint the Government for blame.

The ordinary rules of capitalism create grossly unequal regional development (some areas over-heating, while others rot), acute pressure on the poor of the overdeveloped region (which we see in the total collapse of affordable housing in our city) and disaster for the natural resources (such as wildlife, historic landscapes, water and top-grade farmland) of our county.

Private capital floods to the South East seeking the higher-than-average profit rates of a region with low wages, short supply lines, low levels of trade unionisation and high skill levels.

Private capital avoids the peripheral regions, which see dereliction, permanent unemployment and migration.

To blame the wretched Blair Government is to blame the poodle rather than its master, capitalism.

To let Brighton and Hove City Council off the hook (as the article did) is to ignore the fact that this government is the council's own Labour Party leadership.

We desperately need an alliance of the silent majority of victims of this "cappuccino economy" - working people squeezed out of the possibility of affordable housing and living wages, people desperate to defend their environment.

It is not inevitable this new town "has to go somewhere", as Norman Baker MP implies. It is our collective responsibility to prevent such madness.

-David Bangs, Ewhurst Road, Brighton