Council cracking down on housing fraud

The National Fraud Authority estimates that housing tenancy fraud - the largest area of loss in local government - costs the public purse a staggering £900million-a-year.

The most commonplace forms of tenancy fraud are: 

• Unlawful sub-letting, including sub-letting a whole property to a single household or creating multiple sub-lets within a single property
• Non-occupation by tenants as their principal home
• Wrongly claimed succession
• Unauthorised assignment of tenancies and
• So-called 'key selling', where the tenant leaves the property and passes on the keys in return for a one-off lump sum payment or favour.

Tenancy frauds have an adverse effect on the chances of the two million families currently on Britain's housing waiting list getting a more permanent home.

Recently released figures revealed that 50,000 of these families are in temporary accommodation, at a cost to councils of £18,000-a-year per family.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council recently restructured its Corporate Fraud Team to enable its officers to target housing tenancy frauds more effectively. The team will be working closely with South Essex Homes during the crackdown.

And in addition to stepping up checks on tenants it has appealed to residents to act as its 'eyes and ears' in the local community by reporting tenancy crimes.

Andrew Moring, Executive Councillor for Corporate Support Services, said: "Fraud isn't a victimless crime. In the public sector every pound lost to fraud is a pound of your money that's not available to provide services to vulnerable members of our local community.

"We are committed to fighting fraud and ask residents to help us by acting on their suspicions. We advise them to make an immediate note of their concerns and contact us as soon as possible.

"Arrangements can be made for people to discuss their concerns with us in strictest confidence. We must fight fraud together."

Anyone with information about housing tenancy fraud in Southend can contact SBC's Corporate Fraud Team on 01702-215254 or South Essex Homes on 0800-833610 during office hours.

Alternatively you can e-mail us with your concerns at counterfraud@southend.gov.uk or customerservices@seh.southend.gov.uk

If you are calling outside office hours you can leave a message on our 24-hour report line by calling 01702-215215.