SIR - While some Wintonians may be taking a (maybe misguided) pleasure at the news that their houses increased in value by one third last year the broader picture is not so good.

Aside from the fact that key workers and others cannot afford to live here, it is clear that many retailers are being forced out too.

The number of vacant shops in the Brooks Centre, Romsey Road, North Walls, Parchment Street, Kings Walk and even the High Street, makes us look more like a woebegone northern industrial wasteland than an affluent gem of the south.

Combine that retail exodus with the squalid dereliction of the Friarsgate car park, and you have - from some angles - a bleak perspective on our city.

I support the Silver Hill development but trust that its execution will bring a revival to Winchester as a commercial centre and not lead to even more empty shop fronts.

To continue on the present trend will soon wipe smug smiles off our faces.

Edward Fennell, Egbert Road, Winchester.