Dear Editor,

You often report and comment on rising house prices (most recently today in the article "Rising prices cause house 'apartheid'"), but unless I have missed it, you never pick up on the massive and wholly unjust redistribution of wealth that goes with it.

For those who own a single property that they need to live in, changes in its pecuniary value, apart from affecting their credit rating, are of little importance; but for those who own more than one property, or inherit one, the situation is very different. Essentially they get a free lunch (or rather, very many free lunches), courtesy of "the market".

If I were to inherit my mother's modest London house all to myself (in fact, one day I stand to inherit a 1/4 share in it), I would suddenly be worth a quarter of a million pounds, more money than many people can earn in half a life-time, more than a qualified nurse will take home in 15 years of hard work, yet for which I have never lifted a finger.

And what would I do with all that money?

I'd be able to buy that new BMW I've always dreamed of, take the family to Florida for a couple of weeks and visit Disney Land, and there will still be plenty left for smaller things, like a new TV, video, digital camera, some home improvements etc. etc.

All these things I'd be spending my inherited money on depend on people working to provide them, only I'm not contributing anything in return. All I've done is inherit a house, and a modest one at that; others will have even more (some a lot more) unearned money to spend.

Where is the social sense and justice in that?

There is none. It is social poison and legalised robbery.

Why do we allow it to happen?

Because those in authority (power) and who make the laws always have, and still do, profit from it. One day I too stand to profit from it. But it is still robbery. Someone has to do the work to provide the products and services that I will be spending my inheritance on.

Whoever said that "money does not grow on trees"? It does for some people.