Dave Bonwick (Letters, January 26) calls on me to oppose Des Turner MP's Home Energy Conservation Bill.

As a sponsor of the Bill and an MP for a constituency with many Houses in Multi-Occupancy (HMO), I believe he is wrong.

The evidence of the limited voluntary pilot registration scheme for HMOs run by Brighton and Hove City Council shows no landlords deciding not to let and no rent increases related to the scheme, although there is

evidence of the quality and safety standards of many flats and bedsits being improved. Many responsible landlords welcomed the scheme.

The need for registration is underlined by the Health and Safety Executive's estimate that about 30 people a year are killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty gas appliances, many of them in privately rented HMOs.

The Palmeira Avenue fire in 1992, in which the absence of a secondary means of fire escape contributed to the deaths of six young people, is one example of another hazard in far too many HMOs.

-David Lepper MP, Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament, Brighton Pavilion