I AM responding to Mr Littlefield (May 11) who had issues with student housing.

He suggests that it is unfair that whilst he pays his council tax and there are only four or five people in the house, students only pay one charge even though there may be 10 or more people in the house.

Mr Littlefield in incorrect and in fact the situation is worse than that.

University students are not liable for council tax if they live in a property only occupied by students and therefore a student HMO pays nothing whatsoever. Equally of course, none of the halls of residence pay the charge either. As this is a national policy, the government gives each local authority a grant which is supposed to make up for this loss of income. As is usually the case, this does not in fact fully cover this loss.

It is difficult to get precise figures but I think it is well into five figures.

So in fact the residents of both Bournemouth and Poole are actually subsidising the students and their landlords.

To blame our local councils for failing to stop this increase is unfair because, until recently, they had no powers to stop the change of use.

Even now it is a continual fight against a very strong landlord lobby.

RF COOPER, Laidlaw Close, Talbot Village