SIR - I read your article in your paper on February 25 that if they give up their benefits and work for a year Social Housing tenants could have their house for free - unbelievable! I thought April 1 had come early.

It could be a joke as I haven't read it in other newspapers. It it is, they have caught me hook, line and sinker!

It sounds a bit like when Maggie Thatcher sold all the council houses and the tenants made a killing.

I have read the letters in reply in your paper dated February 26. They have got it spot on! These tenants could make as much as £90,000 if and when they sell. Not bad for one year's work, plus wages.

It was said that their biggest problem would be finding a job. I think they would be prepared to shovel much for 12 months for a wage less than the going rate to get a deal like that.

So what happens when they sell their house and have nowhere to live, have given up their job and spent the money? Can they have another house, go back on benefits and start all over again?

This is hardly fair on the young people working hard but can't get enough money to afford a mortgage is it?

One person said why not give them a car as well. I think this was meant as a joke, but it is true a lot of people do get cars on the benefit. What a lovely country to live in. No wonder so many foreign people want to come and live her.

Please tell me it wasn't George Osborne's idea - if so I will have to take back the Knighthood I proposed for him.

GERALD MOULE Bishampton