Letter: Manifesto for recovery

Sir: Your manifesto for recovery can be faulted only in one instance: it should have been published six months ago, for it contains elementary good sense that should have been obvious to those fiscal truffle-hounds controlling our destinies who unfailingly come up with the wrong remedies.

May I suggest one small refinement to the item concerned with reviving the housing market, and that is that first-time buyers be allowed to claim total tax relief on mortgages up to a ceiling of pounds 50,000. The loss to the Revenue would be minimal and the knock- on effect considerable. People who are in work create work and pay tax. People who are out

of work create nothing but self-

despair.

Let us hope that your words of wisdom do not go unheeded yet again.

Yours sincerely,

BRYAN FORBES

Virginia Water, Surrey