Council housing was implemented to secure homes at a reasonable rent for those of modest means.

When Margaret Thatcher opened the floodgates of right-to-buy, council house stocks plummeted dramatically. We need to rinforce the programme of building more council houses as fewer young families can afford to buy their own from the private sector.

The Conservative Party sold council homes to make itself popular -but who is suffering now? Not the Tories. The Government is selling the council homes to housing associations.

It costs nearly double to rent from a housing association than your local council, who will have to pay this rent to the association and your community tax if you are one of the less fortunate families. This cost will ultimately be passed on to every tax-payer in the community.

It is common sense to keep and invest in more council housing to give every community a safe haven for its children and children's children.

Just how much rent do you think your children are going to pay, especially if they do not have the secure tenancy of a council-owned property that is entitled to be passed on to the next of kin? This in itself keeps young families off the streets and is what council housing is all about.

The authority we gave the Labour Party when we put it in power is working against the expendable minority -council tenants. Denmark Road in Portslade is a part of this issue. Brighton and Hove City Council doesn't care how much its properties fall into disrepair because it intends to hand them over to the RSL housing association anyway.

-M Forrest, Denmark Road, Portslade