I wholeheartedly agree with Michael Williams (Letters, February 4) regarding successive massive council tax increases with little visible improvement and, in some instances, a reduction in what we get for our money.

Increases of ever greater multiples of inflation are completely out of line with any commercial organisation that has to survive in a competitive environment.

I worked in a highly-regulated industry that had to be successful within rules that required a year-on-year price reduction in real terms (the RPI minus formula).

To achieve this demanded real and continuous cost reductions, primarily halving the workforce over a nine-year period in parallel with productivity and technology gains. All this sat within an explosion in demand for services and ever increasing customer expectations.

While there will always be differences between running a local authority and a private enterprise, there are lessons to be learnt, particularly in the cost-management area, that ought to enable prices to be maintained at least in line with, if not below, the level of inflation.

This nettle seems not to have been properly grasped. While "scores of vacancies" are not being filled for the remainder of the financial year, this appears to be only a temporary embargo, according to David Panter (The Argus, January 31).

As soon as our new money starts to roll in, it seems many of these vacancies will be filled. Work that has no measurable benefit continues apace - for instance, the epidemic of pavement build-outs and traffic islands. There must be many similar examples that would substantially cut expenditure, thereby reducing the amount of revenue required.

A worthy challenge for Brighton and Hove City Council must be to contain prices (council tax) in line with inflation and deliver a budget surplus, as Hove used to. Oh, happy day.

-Derek Hillier, Pembroke Crescent, Hove