I STARTED out in the profession of estate agency aged 16 in 1969. I have been an employee, branch manager, then self-employed and owner of my own agency within leasehold premises.

Therefore I have a lot of experience in relation to retail frustrations, especially at rent reviews.

Indeed in 1986, I handed back the keys to my office as I refused to have my rent doubled or the costs of arbitration, although there were another eight years to run.

We are now into a far worse situation with hundreds of thousands of empty shops across the country. It is now the time to change the ruling and firstly ban “upward only” reviews.

Secondly, reviews should be 10 years apart, allowing the leaseholder to invest in their premises and knowing what the rent will be for a decade to come.

Thirdly, no lease should be for less than 25 years. For the same reasons. Rent reviews should be based upon “market conditions”, not comparisons.

I have always said, if you can buy freehold, then do so.

Leases are rather like tenancies. You pay the landlord and end up owning nothing.

That rent could have been a mortgage instead, if the purchase price was reasonable.

The Conservatives introduced the “right to buy”, continued under New Labour, in respect of tenanted residential homes, but there is no such scheme for retail, commercial or industrial.

RICHARD F GRANT, Burley