HEATHER Causnett wrote: "We have enough of those (business premises being converted into flats) already and it is time that brakes were applied to the creation of even more!" (Cinema Sadness, readers' letters, May 25).

It doesn't take a PhD in economics to realise that the law of supply and demand dictates that this process wouldn't be happening if no one wanted to buy these flats.

A serious housing shortage exists in York and throughout the country, and this shortage is driving the price of property out of reach of most first-time buyers entering the market in the last few years.

There are a number of reasons behind it, notably including Gordon Brown's 1997 smash-and-grab raid on private pensions (thereby diverting investment income into residential property), a big rise in immigration and the growing number of single-person households.

As a prospective first-time buyer who has been priced out of the market despite earning substantially over the national average salary I get very frustrated at the NIMBY brigade putting a lot of energy into opposing the creation of new housing stock without offering any constructive suggestions as to how to address the shortage.

I suspect that these people are driven mainly by greed they own their own homes, thank you very much, and don't want a larger housing stock jeopardising the value of their assets.

If Mrs Causnett's and others' objections to flat-building really is motivated by an altruistic wish to preserve community assets, I'm sure they would have no objection to this suggestion. When the Odeon closes, why not stick the Arc Light centre in there?

Leo Enticknap, Ingram House, Bootham, York.