IT remains to be seen just how much of Sir Christopher Kelly’s recommendations on MPs’ expenses will be implemented.

There appears to be some back-peddling, in particular on MPs being allowed to continue employing close family members as secretaries.

This may be an ideal opportunity to make local authorities more transparent.

The amount of money councillors can claim in expenses is minuscule in comparison with MPs. However, this does not diminish the importance of accountability.

In my opinion, the main area which most needs investigation is nepotism and cronyism, which is rife in local authority employment.

This creates job protection, which leads to a lack of competition for the local authority work, which inevitably means that council rent and tax payers are not getting best value for money.

If the wife of a recently-elected councillor gets a job with the same authority, the councillor will claim his wife got the job on merit.

Anyone wishing to complain to their local standards board about a councillor will discover that they are judged by councillors who know those complained about.

There should be a totally independent committee, which does not include councillors, to investigate complaints made against councillors.

Keith Dewison, Billingham.