How depressing that politicians and business leaders still think huge house-building programmes are appropriate for the South-East (The Argus, August 6).

They say providing thousands of new homes will help key workers to live locally, employers to recruit more staff and the economy to grow.

Somehow, the extreme extra pressure on infrastructure - water, sewage, roads, health, education and social services - will magically be okay.

What sort of perverse thinking tries to tackle the problems of an already overcrowded area by increasing the population density even further?

Obsessed with parochial growth for its own sake instead of sustainability, our local leaders go along with the national madness of encouraging people away from areas which could benefit from more development and cramming them into a corner which is bursting.

-Ray Chandler, Shoreham