East of England council team uncovers 66 cases of fraud, saving almost £4m in local authority funds
East Suffolk Council has claimed its Corporate Fraud Service team has saved £3.85m in public funds after more than 300 investigations uncovered instances of fraud across its housing, planning, finance and revenue services.
At a committee meeting this month (10 July), the council's Audit and Governance Committee heard that the team uncovered 66 cases of irregularity between April 2022 and March 2023 out of 318 investigations total.
The team comprises four professionally accredited counterfraud specialists responsible for investigating any potentially fraudulent activity relating to the organisation, its partnerships and direct contractors.
Their work resulted in the cancellation of 13 Right to Buy applications, saving £1,062,580 in discounts and helping to safeguard the market value of the properties, the report said.
Meanwhile, tenancy fraud investigations resulted in the recovery of eight social housing properties, saving an estimated £744,000.
A further £241,715 was reclaimed in financial contributions to pay for improved infrastructure from planning applicants who wrongly claimed exemption from liability to pay Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) but were found not to have fulfilled conditions relating to their declaration.
Another £401,839 was retained through the prevention and detection of incorrect or fraudulent Covid-19 business recovery grant claims designed to provide financial support for small businesses following the coronavirus pandemic. East Suffolk Council made 32,031 payments totalling £135,335,554 in support of businesses affected by the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Business rate avoidance detection resulted in new bills worth £114,416, while investigations into businesses with additional undeclared premises removed £3,675 in wrongly claimed Small Business Rates Relief (SBRR).
In a foreword to the report, the Corporate Fraud Service noted that it expects to recover at least twice the cost of its service by preventing and identifying fraudulent cases. The report noted that this had been achieved, as the investigations cost the council £208,339.
Cllr Vince Langdon-Morris, East Suffolk's cabinet member for Resources and Value for Money, said: "I commend the work of our Corporate Fraud Service team in upholding the council's zero-tolerance approach to fraud, corruption, bribery and other irregularity."
"The prevention, detection and recovery of fraud helps to ensure the protection of public funds and reduce financial pressure on the council. "
"But this isn't just about saving money. The work of the Corporate Fraud Service indirectly enables families to come off the housing register and find homes; it helps us retain housing stock which may otherwise have been wrongly bought at a discount; it means communities get what they deserve in contributions from developers, and it means that we can protect and preserve the financial assistance available to those who genuinely qualify for and deserve it."
Adam Carey
