With Brighton and Hove Council encouraging people to move to Wales to ease the housing shortage, who's prepared to leave the green, green grass of Hove?

What is on offer in Rhondda that you can't find in Rottingdean?

Why swap Brighton for Bridgend, Portslade for Porthcawl or Southwick for Swansea?

The simple answer is a roof over your head.

While families in Brighton and Hove are crying out for accommodation - there are 6,000 people looking for new homes in the city - in Wales there are properties sitting empty. In some areas, waiting lists are unheard of.

Earlier this week, Brighton and Hove City Council invited Welsh councils and housing associations to the Brighton Centre to encourage low-income families to go west.

There are financial incentives to do so and rents in Wales can be as low as £32 per week.

But of course, a home is not just four walls. It is community and lifestyle and where the heart is.

Wales is undoubtedly a wonderful country but Brighton and Hove it is not.

There are certainly areas in which Wales excels. It has 750 miles of coastline, offering everything from sweeping bays and steep, rugged cliffs to family seaside resorts.

But Brighton and Hove has all that in microcosm, from the white cliffs at Rottingdean, through the pulsating bars in Brighton, past the fishermen's boats and beach huts in Hove to exhilarating playground of the windsurfers. (Not to mention the nudist beach.)

Cardiff lays claim to the title of Europe's youngest capital city and has transformed itself into a vibrant, cosmopolitan centre.

But to Brighton, the king of cool, it is a young pretender.

Cardiff is promoting its cafe quarter, hip shops, nightlife - doesn't all that sound familiar?

The Welsh love music and are rightly proud of their male voice choirs. In Brighton, music pours out of windows and doorways all over the city and buskers are welcome on the streets.

Wales's rich cultural heritage has produced many famous names who left at the first opportunity.

Sir Anthony Hopkins, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones all took flight from their homeland when the bright lights beckoned.

And although Catherine Zeta Jones is now building a home back in the country of her birth, it didn't take long to head to Los Angeles after stardom arrived.

But Brighton and Hove is bursting at the seams with celebrities who have chosen to make the city by the sea their home.

Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills-McCartney, DJ Fatboy Slim, comics Steve Coogan and Mark Williams, actress Cate Blanchett, model Jordan and former boxer Chris Eubank are among the many household names with a BN postcode.

Admittedly, Wales, as a principality, does have an official royal seal of approval and boasts the impressive Caernarfon Castle, among others.

However, Brighton and Hove has the splendid, dandyish and world-famous Royal Pavilion.

And although gourmets will love Welsh lamb, laverbread and hundreds of cheese varieties, Brighton and Hove must surely have the biggest and best melting pot of restaurants, bistros, cafes and great pubs this side of Mars.

Wales has three National Parks, boasting the dramatic Alpine peaks of Snowdonia, the adventurer's Utopia of the Brecon Beacons and the coastal splendour of Pembrokeshire.

Okay, so we can't compete with Snowdonia but we do have the stunning scenery of the Downs right on our doorstep.

Wales is renowned as the spiritual home of rugby. But who is to say the boys at Brighton or Hove rugby clubs are not just as passionate about their sport?

Then again the Welsh do have the Millennium Stadium while we have, er, Withdean Stadium. But that is only temporary.

And although even some locals struggle with the correct pronunciation of Steyning, Ardingly and Horsted Keynes, nothing can compare with the mind-boggling, tongue-twisting Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

I rang the Wales Tourist Board and asked them for ten good things about Wales.

A spokeswoman from the board had no problem reeling off a list of attractions, including the vast choice of rural scenery, the ever-changing coastline, its five areas of outstanding natural beauty, the country's own language, its warmly welcoming residents and their enthusiasm for sport, the arts and their heritage.

She also pointed out Wales's many beautiful beaches (mostly sandy) and its piers, such as Aberystwyth's Royal and Llandudno's (both 19th Century and intact).

So, for those considering a move, will they succumb to the charms of wonderful Wales? Or will Brighton and Hove remain the place to be, even on a housing waiting list?

In the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but it is good to know our Celtic cousins are ready and waiting to say "croeso" (welcome).

And even though Wales may be hundreds of miles away, some things are reassuringly familiar.

After all, you can always keep in touch with what is happening in your town, courtesy of The Argus - The South Wales Argus that is.