13 MARCH 1993, Page 30

Sir: Your chorus of disapproval (Letters, 27 February) against leasehold

enfranchise- ment may look for support from Sidney and Beatrice Webb (Socialism: True and False, 1894):

Fabianism has no desire to see the Duke of Bedford replaced by 500 little dukes of Bed- ford under the guise of enfranchised lease- holders.

But hardly from F.A. Hayek (The Road to Serfdom, 1944):

There is in particular all the difference between creating a system within which com- petition will work as beneficially as possible, and passively accepting institutions as they are. Probably nothing has done so much harm to the liberal cause as the wooden insis- tence of some liberals on certain rough rules of thumb, above all the principle of laissez- faire.

Owen Humphreys

29 Northchurch Terrace, London N1