Let me assure Councillor Rik Child (Letters, January 18) that irrespective of whether Dr Desmond Turner, MP for Kemp Town, gets his Home Energy Conservation Bill through, the backlog of nuclear waste at Sellafield will remain much the same.

The Bill, however, will exacerbate an already acute affordable housing shortage.

Few would argue the 1988 Housing Act removed the shackles placed on the market by Labour Rent Acts and immensely increased affordable accommodation for those wanting to rent.

All that is now in jeopardy. Under the Home Energy Conservation Bill, Dr Turner is planning to introduce compulsory nationwide registration schemes for "houses in multiple occupation" (HMOs).

Importantly, he has changed the meaning of HMO to include landlords who let a flat to flat-sharers.

The prerequisites in the Bill are a means of protracting licensing by stealth, at which this government is second to none.

It proposes a change in the definition of HMO from "a house which is occupied by persons who do not form a single household" to "a house which is occupied by adult members of more than two families".

Up to now, flat-sharers have always been adjudged a single household.

Now Dr Turner has introduced measures which would require HMOs to be registered with local authorities, with all the forceful red tape and bureaucracy that entails.

Should the Bill succeed, it will not only apply to seedy slum landlords but also to the landlord who lets his house to three individuals or more.

If David Lepper MP is genuinely concerned about the plight of the homeless seeking affordable housing, he should be concerned about the implications of this Bill.

Many thousands of small landlords letting to flat sharers will instantly become enmeshed, obligated to conform to much burdensome bureaucratic bull imposed by local authorities, including scrutiny or approval of tenancy agreements.

No better example of the acute affordable housing shortage that already exists was the front-page story (January 19) reporting the plight of the Lower family.

Over to you, Des.

-Dave Bonwick, Stonery Road, Portslade