SOUTH Dorset MP Richard Drax is quoted as telling Parliament (Echo, Tuesday, September 11), “I believe, as do many of my constituents, that this country is full”.

Clearly Mr Drax hopes we do not make the connection between this perception and the fact that he lives on a 7,000 acre private estate. His home, Charborough House, encompasses enough land to build, with the same population density as Bournemouth, a town of 112,500 people.

While millions struggle to afford an average house it is a privileged minority with the assets and attitude of Mr Drax who are the problem.

With his party’s policy of austerity cuts for the poorest, a massive reduction in the size of the Drax estate would release enough building land to significantly alleviate the housing problem in Dorset.

What Mr Drax really means is that if our population grows much more, the public’s attention will inevitably turn to people like himself who hog vast areas of this country while seeking to deny other people the right to live here at all.

GARY DALKIN, Lydford Road, Bournemouth