SIR - Only those who are homeless know how frighteningly easy it is for ordinary people to fall by the wayside in our society, and Andrew Brown's recent letter was excellent, apart from one thing - that there should be sufficient homes in our nation to house everyone.

The problem is the tide of humanity across the world that is seeking a better life. Millions are coming here and our people are homeless because housing can't keep up. We have now reached the ridiculous situation whereby Worcester people, with local jobs, are being offered housing in Evesham.

Add up the categories of people coming to our nation, and the figure for 2005 is 1,600,000. The political reality is our nation cannot cope with such numbers, but the politicians don't have the guts to say so.

That's why our roads are gridlocked, public transport can't cope, and the development-mad are concreting over our nation. Europe is planning to bring tens of millions more immigrants to Europe because there are not enough cheap workers for Europe's commerce. We are depriving European workers of their jobs because we can bring people to Europe who will work for less; and if people keep on working for less, who will have to pay to buy the products and services commerce is producing? Isn't that why our shops have no shoppers?

N TAYLOR,

Worcester.