I WAS reminded of the old maxim: don’t believe everything you read in the papers when I read Jeff Adams letter, ‘Drain on Infrastructure’.

Jeff wrote that “In the previous financial year, 61 per cent of housing association properties went to East European migrants”. That’s an extraordinary statistic, or at least it would be if it was true.

I don’t know where Jeff got this figure from. A quick Google finds reference to the 61 per cent figure in the Telegraph and the Express.

The Telegraph said, “Housing associations are also letting a bigger chunk of their stock to people from these EU accession countries.

In the last financial year, more than six in 10 (61 per cent) homes went to nationals from accession countries, up from 54 per cent in 2007/08.”

This is complete nonsense. The article even managed to mention that 91 per cent of homes went to UK nationals!

The Express was more accurate. “In the last financial year, 61 per cent of homes that went to nationals from these countries came from the housing associations, up from 54 per cent in 2007/8.”

The real figure for new tenancies going to people from Eastern Europe, which you can see in the Department of Communities & Local Government Households statistical release of October 6, 2015, is just over 3 per cent.

They ‘round it up’ to 4 per cent. More than 9 out of 10 new social housing tenancies still go to UK nationals.

MARTIN WICKS Secretary Swindon Tenants Campaign Group Park North, Swindon