I was astounded on Wednesday, while watching Prime Minister's Questions, to hear Labour MP for Hove, Celia Barlow, ask a question on public housing in which she insinuated the Conservativerun Brighton and Hove City Council is not building enough new homes.

Although I agree with her in that there is a crisis in public housing in our area, I consider her question to be disingenuous on two counts. Firstly, because it failed to tackle the root cause of the situation, ie, the right-to-buy policy introduced by the Tories and continued under Labour that has led to the decimation of the council housing stock.

Secondly, because this Labour Government, like the Tory one before it, has systematically gone about removing powers from local authorities and has rendered them largely powerless to act.

If Mrs Barlow is genuine in her concern she will focus her efforts on fighting for more powers for local government as well as seeking to end the disastrous right-to-buy scheme.

  • Ben Herbert, The Drive, Hove

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