I WAS born in Cowes in the year that the German Blitz left so many local families homeless.

However, once the Second World War was over, the council began building hundreds of new family homes.

Since then, the shipyards and farming that provided employment for local families has gone.

Tourism is now the main Isle of Wight industry, together with other commercial outlets, the hospital, schools, police, fire and other services, are the main employers of working people.

Being an island, these people who actually keep the Island going have to live locally.

However, the ridiculous prices of ordinary housing, the hundreds of empty holiday homes, the continued allocation of land for luxury developments is making it almost impossible for ordinary working people to have a home.

It seems to me that the weak national and local legislation, combined with ‘off-shore’ cash, is managing to do exactly what Hitler’s bombs failed to do.

Read more letters sent to the County Press here. Do you have a view on this or any other subject? Send us a letter – under 350 words if possible - to editor@iwcp.co.uk