If Elizabeth Stewart (Letters, January 4) is to be believed, Conservative cuts are responsible for the lack of snow clearance in Brighton and Hove. But the Tories have controlled Brighton and Hove for less than two years, so they cannot be blamed for all the city’s problems. All Southern local authorities have been hammered by Labour’s policy of channelling funding to the North.

Grants from central government as well as money raised from council house sales have been diverted in this manner. Gordon Brown accepts that Labour has little chance of holding the Southern seats it won in 1997. Therefore he is trying to shore up Labour’s Northern heartlands.

I am not a fan of the council tax system. I believe local authority funding should be collected nationally as VAT and returned per head of population, with no regional variation.

The Government must bear some responsibility for Britain’s economic problems. In 1997 it inherited a very healthy economy.

Whoever wins this year’s election will have to impose draconian spending cuts. Any party which says otherwise is in a state of delusion.

Richard J Szypulski, Lavender Street, Brighton