Home truths

British National Housing Federation chief executive Jim Coulter has acknowledged the agency's need to address the problems embedded in its social housing policies. A chief concern involves the problem of the incidence of high investment housing projects without a community that can afford paying for them. The 1988 Housing Act assumed that tenants could afford to pay 35% of their income in rents, however, under current rates, tenants pay some 30% of their income. Mr Coulter intends to increase or stabilize grant rates for socialized housing for 1998 and 1999.