This week our Star Letter accolade is awarded to David Rees for his response to the post: Government mulls ban on estate agent to broker referral fees.

He said: “I’m not sure that it ‘obviously increases costs to consumers’; I pay a local agent a modest amount for business done from referrals passed to me, but I don’t charge the clients any more as a result.

“Surely a far bigger problem is estate agents that employ advisers pressuring buyers or sellers to use them? Surely banning these payments will make this worse?

“I don’t see any problem with a requirement to make any payments transparent though.”