SIR – It was heartening to read the Sunday Telegraph’s disapproval of a proposed mansion tax (Leading Article, February 9). Many people, like me, live in houses bought more than 50 years ago, in then run-down areas, which are now selling for unimaginable prices. I was obliged to take out an equity-release scheme when my husband developed Alzheimer’s disease and could no longer work, in order to give us sufficient income to live on. I now own about a quarter of the current equity in this 1860s semi, and am obliged to live frugally, having paid large sums of money for his care over more than two years before he died. I am nearly 83 and have no wish to move; this is my home.