As "absentee landlords" of two of the student houses in Hanover, Brighton, we feel we should defend ourselves in response to your front page story (The Argus, August 11).

The vast profits which we are supposed to be making barely cover the cost of keeping our own daughter at university.

We have done up our houses to a high standard in the hope that the students will appreciate and look after them.

So far, so good - last year we found one of our students polishing the brass on the front door and both gardens are immaculate. There isn't a rat in sight and certainly no vandalism.

And are cash-starved students to be blamed for the replacement of corner shops with off-licences? If we all still shopped at corner shops, they wouldn't be closing down.

One of the students mentioned in your article has decided to stay on in Hanover at the end of his studies.

Presumably he or some of the 30,000 students currently contributing massively to the economy of the city might go on to have families, some of which will settle in Hanover.

They are bound to want to stay in an area where they have felt welcome - who wouldn't want to raise a family in such a lovely area?

If they are noisy, there are constraints, ie the council, the letting agency or maybe even talking to and getting to know the students. They are not alien beings. Why should they drive out families?

They are part of families themselves and are the same as our children who are studying in other cities in other people's neighbourhoods, which then become their neighbourhoods, too.

I'm sure we would all be delighted for our children to live in such a nice, safe and friendly area rather than the slummy and dangerous areas which are often all that is available in other cities.

-Liz Johnson, Lewes