Crackdown on housing fraud to free up critically needed homes

The crackdown in North Yorkshire will target fraudsters who are providing false information to secure social housing or illegally renting out the properties to other tenants at vastly inflated rates in scams thought to involve hundreds of properties.

A pilot which has been running in York for the last two years is being rolled out across North Yorkshire in an attempt to tackle fraudsters operating in some of the most desirable locations to live in the region. The initiative is being overseen by investigators from Veritau, a company owned by York Council and North Yorkshire County Council which was established in 2009 to tackle fraud within the public sector.

Veritau’s director, Max Thomas, said: “This is an issue which affects local authorities across the whole of the country, but it is even more pronounced when housing is in such short supply in locations such as North Yorkshire.

“It is taking a vital resource away from the people who need it most, and also fleecing the taxpayer. We will do all we can to bring those responsible for the frauds to justice, and where there is sufficient evidence, we will pursue prosecutions through the courts.”

Social housing fraud is estimated to cost the public purse at least £900m each year nationally and nearly two million families were on a waiting list for social housing in 2012.

There are more than 14,500 individuals or families registered with a pioneering online estate agency in North Yorkshire, called the choice-based lettings scheme, with 1,000 applicants in the category of urgent need.

The scheme launched in 2011 and streamlines the house-hunting process by providing a single application form wherever the applicant is, along with an overarching lettings policy and waiting 
list.

The initial crackdown in York over the last two years has freed up more than 40 properties and allowed them to be legitimately let.

Investigators also provided information to prevent 15 false applications for housing, but it is thought many more offences are going undetected.

York Council undertook one of the first prosecutions of its kind nationally when it took a tenant to court last July for illegally sub-letting her local authority-owned home. Beatrice Stanford pleaded guilty and was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £425 in costs.

Officials from Veritau and York Council have joined forces with eight social housing providers to create the new anti-housing fraud alliance. Other partners involved include Richmondshire District Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Selby District Council and Craven District Council, as well as the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, Broadacres Housing Association, Yorkshire Housing and York Housing Association.

The partnership will attempt to trace fraudsters who lie about their circumstances to obtain a property as well as tenants who illegally sub-let their home. It will also target tenants who stop living at their property and people who provide false information to gain a home through succession rights.

York Council’s cabinet member for crime and stronger communities, Coun Linsay Cunningham-Cross, said: “We plan to stop those dishonest profiteers from exploiting homes at the expense of some of our most vulnerable people. This campaign, with the co-operation of honest neighbours, will help do just that.”

York was named by the National Housing Federation in August last year as the second most expensive location for private rents outside of the South of England. Leeds was the most expensive town or city to rent a property in the North and the Midlands while York came close behind, with annual costs of as much as £10,000.

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