Council helps social landlords to beat housing fraud
Published 22 January 2010
Southwark Council fraud stoppers are stepping in to help Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to combat the problem of people fraudulently living in social housing.
The move comes with the award of £50,000 of government money to fund the work and follows the success of the council's team in tackling the problem in its own stock.
Unauthorised occupation can mean different things. A tenant could be illegally subletting part or all of the property or perhaps the property has been passed to a friend or another family member.
As London's biggest social landlord with more than 55,000 tenants and leaseholders, Southwark Council is one of the few authorities that has a dedicated investigation team and hotline.
Its four-person team recovers more than 100 properties-a-year; which according to the Audit Commission equates to savings of roughly £700,000.
Importantly it also frees up hundreds of homes in a borough where there is a massive demand for council properties.
But RSLs have limited resources and expertise to address the issue.
Southwark Council conducted a pilot in 2007 with one local RSL. The fraud team visited and tenancy checked 268 properties for them.
It identified a number of unauthorised occupants and recovered 13 properties without going through court action and one recovered via the courts. This represented an unauthorised occupancy rate of at least 4 percent in the RSL.
The new funding gives the council's team the opportunity to train RSL staff in not only Southwark, but also Bromley, Lewisham and Bexley to tackle the problem and leave them with all the skills and tools they need to combat the issue themselves. The project kicks off in February 2010
Linda Manchester, executive member for community safety at Southwark Council, said: "Combating unauthorised occupation is a top priority for Southwark and it should be for every authority and agency. At a time when councils - like residents - have to watch every penny, it has never been more important to clamp down on those trying to defraud the taxpayer.
"But the issue is not just about money. The actual cost to a family who have been waiting on the housing list for years, looking for somewhere to live, often with pressures on them and their children is immense.
"I don't think we can ever overestimate how important that is. Freeing up local housing for people who are in need is absolutely at the heart of what we're trying to do as a responsible social landlord."
Residents can contact the fraud hotline on 0800 052 1010 or email fraud.hotline@southwark.gov.uk.
