WELL done George Osborne who is increasing stamp duty on second homes. I was just reading last week an article in a local paper saying that something should be done about second homes in our area. I live in the Yorkshire Dales where the houses coming on the market are out of the reach of the young people who want to get on the property ladder and if this helps them to do such a thing then I support it wholeheartedly.

If people coming out of the big Metropolitan areas looking for a second home then another £5,000 to £7,000 on the purchase price of a house is not going to stop them.

It is not fair on the young men and women born and brought up in the Dales to see what could be their first home snatched away from them by some well-off couple further afield to whom money is no object. If the present situation persists we are going to have our villages full of houses lived in only half a year in some cases and putting in jeopardy the livings of those running pubs and small village shops.

It is the knowhow of Dales people and farmers that are keeping this area such an attraction to those elsewhere and in the conurbations which makes where we live, what they are - a little gem.

John Watson, Leyburn.