Jason Stacey writes about the £12,000 house in his Around Ealing introduction this month.

He points out that the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) information is available on the web.

So, curious, I looked it up. Contrary to what Jason says, Acton is in the inner and north west London rental area, which does not include Westminster.

The rent given for a five-bedroom house in this area is a maximum of £920 per week. Note that this is the most a tenant can possibly claim in benefit and not the rent that a landlord must be given.

Although the LHA amount for Ealing is a lot lower, clearly houses in Acton are not going to have rents significantly higher than central Ealing.

The website does not give figures for larger houses, but there would seem to be a large gap between £3,680 and £12,000.

There are two errors in his article - the inclusion with Westminster and stating that the LHA figure is the rent that has to be paid.

PETE GRIST W5