Sir, – It is entirely reasonable that the European Central Bank and other EU institutions should be more involved in relation to national as well as EU-wide housing policy, as suggested by Anne Barrington ("The housing crisis is Europe-wide – the EU must help fix it", Opinion, December 22nd).
EU institutions cannot ignore escalating house prices and unaffordable rents in Ireland and in other member states. They cannot continue to tolerate property speculation, together with the commodification and financialisation of housing which impact adversely on the welfare, especially of the young, throughout Europe. Anne Barrington is also rightly concerned about costly and long-term leasing arrangements for social housing with not a single home gained at the end of the leases, instead of long-term state investment in social housing. Our recent plan, Housing for All, will hopefully deal with some of these challenges but the EU and a “coalition of like-minded people” can also play a key role. – Yours, etc,
Prof PJ DRUDY,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.