I AM responding to a reply to my letter of 10 November concerning the need for council housing.

Fredaj stated student loans are only repayable at £24,000 per annum, not reaching a living wage. Does he think a mortgage can be had on less than £24,000 a year? My point being with thousands of debt repayable on reaching a reasonable sum any mortgage would have to take that debt into account and be managed in addition to repaying the mortgage.

With regard to council proposals to limit private rents, that would fail as most landlords only own one or two properties and rely on the rent covering mortgage repayments, albeit via the taxpayer in housing benefit.

Those properties would be sold if rents were restricted, which is why we must have more council housing and then restrict housing benefit payment levels to private tenancies. That way the private landlords will need to rent to better off people and not rely on taxpayer payments.

The five year UK residency rule pushes those from outside the UK to seek well paid jobs to pay the less subsidised private rents and not undercut the domestic workforce wages.

Robert Lambeth

Martin Road, Hove