REGARDING your report "Hit landlords harder plea" (LET, October 8), the pomposity of Councillor Dave Smith, who called for full or even double council tax to be charged on empty homes, is typical of Blackburn with Darwen Council's attitude to housing.

It is demonstrated by the grotesque failure of its social housing policy.

Mammoth amounts of public money -- more than £30 million a year -- were poured into this gigantic sponge and it still could not make a go.

Uncollected rents running into hundreds of thousands of pounds were just written off. There was an enormous turnover of tenants because of dissatisfaction with the council as landlords.

Hundreds of houses were left empty and more than 4,000 council houses built in the last 50 years were demolished.

Would the double council tax proposed by Coun Smith apply to the former council houses now run by Twin Valley Homes?

Why has this situation of so many empty houses come about? It is obvious that Coun Smith and his colleagues fail to appreciate the cause.

The properties he refers to are at the bottom of the market. Does he not realise that if people on low incomes bought them, they would not have the resources to renovate or repair them? That is why they fall into private sector landlords hands.

They fall under the council's responsibility to enforce the standards to make houses fit to live in. This did not apply to council houses under their landlords.

Surely, it makes sense to offer grant aid to owner-occupiers who are prepared to buy these properties -- at, say, £10,000 per house, thus saving the £3,500 per year per house paid out by the council to private landlords.

WALT MEADOWS, Whalley New Road, Blackburn.