I read with interest the front-page article "Prices hit homeless" (The Argus, October 23), which states the average cost of a one-bedroom flat in Brighton and Hove is more than £141 a week.

I contacted a number of letting agents and have established through them and members of my association that a number of them let one-bedroom flats at less than £100 a week and the average is less than £120 a week.

It is very rare indeed to find a one-bedroom flat at more than £140 and it is quite clear Brighton and Hove City Council is exaggerating rents charged in the private rented sector in order to discredit private landlords.

The housing benefit department keeps extensive records of rents charged and some 12,000 tenants live in properties owned by private landlords in Brighton and Hove.

Most private landlords charge affordable rents and it is a disgrace the council loses no opportunity in trying to discredit them and exaggerate both the prices they charge and the condition of the properties their tenants occupy.

The council supports housing association housing to the exclusion of all other, when it should be working in partnership with the major provider of housing in the city.

There is little doubt the council has an agenda, part of which is to blame private landlords for housing problems when many of its own policies are the real problem.

-Mike Stimpson, chairman, Southern Private Landlords' Association, Brighton