Keep strategies local

It seems the writing is on the wall ("ODPM may rewrite regional housing strategies", 3 October, page 11). When local views do not comply with government policy, despite what the government says about serving the will of the people, it is government policy that will prevail.

This contradiction, so often seen, is perhaps an early warning of what will happen when regional government becomes a reality – a reality on paper, perhaps, but not when the policies and strategies of the regional assemblies fail to reinforce the government's dictats.

Such an approach could seriously undermine political ownership of regional housing strategies at a local level.