High-density housing not all bad

If properly planned, high-density housing is not the urban hell that Cllr Noel Collins (Letters, June 21) suggests.

Its ill-effects stem from poorly built and maintained facilities. Lifts breaking down are an indictment of lifts maintenance, not the housing. The social and psychological problems associated with high-density housing are due to tower blocks peopled with the less-well-off and which did not provide ancillary facilities. The towers often fell prey to anti-social behaviour and dereliction.

Perhaps high-rise development is not suitable for young families, but suggesting that all high-density development be discarded in favour of low-density housing would promote urban sprawl. The boom years left us with vast swathes of low-density housing estates. These are both an inefficient use of land and require high-quality public transport for widely-dispersed inhabitants, which is difficult.