Councils Making Gains against Social Housing Fraud

Councils have been making significant gains in tackling social housing fraud, such as illegally sub-let homes, the Audit Commission revealed in its latest annual assessment of how well local authorities are doing in detecting and dealing with a whole range of fraudsters.  Last year, councils recovered 2,642 homes that had been illegally sub-let; worth around the equivalent of nearly £400 million if they’d had to build the same number of properties. All told, the Government estimates that social housing fraud costs the public purse in the region of £845 million per year, but this latest successes measured by the Audit Commission represents a 51% increase in the detection of social housing fraud since 2011/12.  Read more on the Housing Excellence website.