PHELIM Mac Cafferty, Leader of Brighton and Hove city council, wrote, in his latest View from the Leader column in The Argus, about rent controls.

He said that the council had pushed the government on issues such as this, and was working on an ethical lettings charter and a good landlord scheme in order to push landlords to limit the cost of rent in the city and create better standards of housing.

He also added that the council's enforcement team had been increased, which would send a clear message that action would be taken against landlords renting out homes that failed to meet energy standards in the private rented sector.

That all sounds very laudable but, it seems to me, he has neglected to tackle the elephant in the room, which is that landlords are not philanthropic members of the community but, instead, rent out properties in order to achieve a profit on the money that they have invested in purchasing them.

Therefore, if Councillor Mac Cafferty's ethical lettings charters, good landlord schemes and increased enforcement lead to increased costs in renting out their properties, as they surely will, then I would suggest that a number of them will conclude that letting is no longer worth the trouble and will put their flats and houses up for sale on the open market.

He would then find that,whilst the measures he is taking will result in some properties being improved, there will be a lot less properties available for people to rent.

So, what's best? A smaller number of very nice, rentable flats and houses or a much larger one consisting of the very nice and the not so very nice but far better than nothing else ones?

You tell me.

Eric Waters

Lancing