Brighton and Hove Council has been keen to get a better deal for many of the 25,000 leaseholders who face serious problems with landlords in the city.

But some leaseholders have a gripe against one of the biggest and best- known landlords of all, the council itself.

They claim to be worse off than many private leaseholders because they don't have the help of the council in fighting their case.

Certainly there's cause for concern over some of the horror stories we reveal today in a feature article.

Tenants say they've been asked to pay large sums for their share of work which turned out to be both shoddy and expensive.

Against that, most council leaseholders in a survey were shown to be satisfied or very satisfied after buying their own homes.

What's needed is an independent service well away from the local authority to deal with disputes between the council and leaseholders.

But, if that's what the leaseholders want, they will have to pay for it. The council can't be expected to stump up the money when it's the other party who is involved.