The hollowing out of our cities

Sir, – In "Prepare for rise in interest rates and price inflation, Varadkar warns" (News, March 19th), the Tánaiste warns how "Irish cities could be 'hollowed out' by working from home".

Irish cities now have been subjected to a decade of “hollowing out” under successive Fine Gael governments, long before Covid accelerated such trends.

Fine Gael’s policies have encouraged untaxed real-estate investment trusts to keep their blocks half-empty to maintain scarcity and high-rents, the prioritisation of discredited co-living and hotels over building homes, weak rent controls, smaller apartment sizes, and first-time buyer schemes that serve only to inflate house prices further.

It’s no wonder that those who are now able to work remotely are increasingly looking outside our cities for both affordable accommodation, more space and a better quality of life.

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If Leo Varadkar truly wants our cities “to be vibrant places where talent wants to live”, he should look to his own party’s housing policies rather than the “dangers” of wide-scale working from home. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD

TALBOT,

Dublin 6.