Dear Madam,

"ODPM denies Camden a way out after 'no' vote" (16 January, pages 7-9) shows that the central lesson may not have been learned.

Camden tenants were not washed down with the last rain storm; they know that the proposed arm's-length management organisation is merely another housing association in a very thin disguise.

The council's leader is quoted as saying that the ballot was a vote of confidence in Camden's housing department. This is rubbish. Tenants voted against the proposal on the ballot paper. If anything, it was a vote against housing associations.

An important part of the housing association sector is in a mess. In the meanwhile, the government should give the funding it was planning to pay to this ersatz housing association directly to Camden and stop messing about.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Rutherford.

London NW6