THE proposal to lend £6m to housing associations to build low cost homes in South Lakeland sounds to be a good proposal in principal.

The major problem in South Lakeland is finding both suitable and affordable land to build homes upon.

The old cattle market site in Kendal and the Furness railway site in Coniston were two of the last large brown sites. Building on green field sites is not acceptable to all.

Few brown field land, if any, is now available and those sites approved for building are selling at large sums, Strawberry Fields on Oxenholme Road being a case in point. If the purchase of the land is high then the homes built on the land becomes unaffordable to many.

Peter Gaukroger

Kendal