SO that there are no more "misleading statements in the Letters column" perhaps Councillor Dave Smith (Letters, August 7) would inform readers of how many houses in the private sector Blackburn with Darwen Council has inspected and approved for the use of asylum seekers since the government brought in its policy of dispersal.

Would he agree that these same houses have to be to a higher Home Office standard, than that which the council enforces for private sector tenants as basic standards of occupiable housing?

WALT MEADOWS, Whalley New Road, Blackburn.