TOM Atkinson (Review August 28) identifies me with those who “seek to close down the debate on immigration”.

On the contrary, I seek to open it up and make it more balanced by responding to simplistic arguments about the issue.

He says I ignore the facts. Not so.

The facts show that in 2014 24 per cent of doctors in English NHS hospitals were foreign nationals.

Across the UK 36 per cent of NHS doctors qualified abroad. Can the NHS do without these?

We have a housing shortage yet there are 610,000 empty properties and 200,000 have been unoccupied for over six months.

Mr Atkinson makes a distinction between population and resources.

Yet people are resources. They are not just consumers of public services but providers of these services through the work they do and the taxes they pay.

This week, a consultant from St Thomas’ Hospital in London pointed out that they had the (financial) resources to employ urgently-needed additional radiologists but couldn’t do so because of the government’s cap on non-EU immigration.

The causes of our problems are varied and complex. Those who portray them mainly as the result of immigration need to get things in perspective.

– Peter Strong, Caldicot.