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New funding announced to combat social housing fraud
The money will be used to fund specialist investigation teams and new techniques such as advanced data-matching.
The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 will mean those social tenants that sub-let entire properties could face a fine and a custodial sentence of up to two years, while councils will be able to recover the proceeds of sub-letting social homes. Previously, illegal sub-letters were in the main only at risk of losing their tenancies. Renting out a spare room to a lodger will not be an offence under the act.
Housing Minister Mark Prisk said that illegal sub-letting cost taxpayers as up £900m a year, while making thousands of pounds in profits for those who sub-let. The Audit Commission estimates that 50,000 homes in England are unlawfully occupied.
The Minister said: “Tenancy cheats and fraudsters deny social homes to people in genuine need of this valuable resource, while costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds.
“That’s why we’re cracking down on this criminal behaviour with a £9.5m fund to back locally-led efforts to tackle the tenancy cheats and giving greater powers to the police and councils so perpetrators face the full force of the law.”
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