HOW absurd are those who think that the 2.5 per cent drop in house prices in March is bad news.

People are having to borrow over four times their salary to get on the ladder and others are having to spend sometimes almost a third of their income in rent because landlords have had it pretty good with the shortage of affordable housing over the past decade.

It is about time that the market was freed up. The buy to rent market should continue to fall, meaning landlords will want to sell housing and more people will prefer to invest in their own property where they can live in it.

Overall it might even mean that some of the 400 empty houses known to Eastleigh Borough Council and probably a proportionate amount in Southampton will be marketed at sensible prices for working people.

Could developers be tempted to withdraw from building on sites like Eastleigh allotments as they realise that profit margins will be curtailed? People working in the building industry should find work maintaining older housing and indeed renovating housing to increased environmental standards. The Government should provide more grants for this.

I suggest that Gordon Brown cancel one or two of his proposed 15 Eco Towns (many of them are on greenfield sites as society prepares for second home owners to ditch their property assets and sell them on to needy families.

Let's look forward to a small price drop for housing so that we all will not have to suffer a complete slump and extreme negative equity for homeowners in the further future.

JOE COX, South West Hants Green Party.