Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of social rated housing which is illegally sub-let; and how that cost is calculated.
Grant Shapps: The National Fraud Authority estimates that housing tenancy fraud in England costs around £900 million a year. This figure is based on the Audit Commission's estimates that it costs an average of £18,000 per year to house a family or individual in temporary housing and that 50,000 properties are unlawfully occupied in England (which would otherwise be available for occupation). Recent research by housing fraud specialists HJK Investigations has suggested that the level of such fraud could be far greater. Replacing the social homes that are being unlawfully occupied—to house those who have effectively been displaced by tenancy fraudsters—would cost several billion pounds.