The O2 Centre site on Finchley Road

• CORRESPONDENTS who urge Camden to refuse Landsec’s development application for the O2 Centre site out of hand are overlooking the realities of the situation.

There is a severe housing shortage in the borough for those who cannot afford to rent or purchase at full market value.

This is in large part due to the policies of the Conservative government which do not permit local authorities simply to build social housing.

Generally speaking low-cost housing can only be provided when private developers subsidise it from development profits.

Let us be clear: Landsec is a commercial developer seeking to extract profits from the land it owns, and this it is determined to do, one way or another.

Camden is not the promoter of this scheme, merely the authority that has to deal with it.

A point-blank refusal would likely see Camden embroiled in an expensive planning appeal that it, and we as local taxpayers, can ill afford.

The priority should be to ensure that Landsec comes up with a plan that provides the maximum level of affordable housing for local residents.

Camden’s policy of requiring a minimum of 50 per cent affordable housing in private developments provides a good starting point.

Of course, the council’s planning department must not seek to secure social housing at all costs.

It must ensure that the development is sustainable, with appropriate amenities and green space for the community, and it must not permit high-rise development out of keeping with the local landscape.

Given that Landsec’s aim is to profit from the sale of very expensive private flats to wealthy people in a highly desirable area of London, it has every incentive to agree to such reasonable demands.

ELIZABETH JOHNSON, NW6