Crackdown by London borough sees almost 300 council properties returned

A London borough says a crackdown on tenancy fraud has led to the recovery of almost 270 council homes obtained by deception.

Southwark Council said it was on its way to achieving its target of recovering 300 properties by the end of 2012/13, through a combination of unannounced tenancy checks and intelligence sharing with agency partners.

Its initiatives include investigations of Right to Buy purchases and homes allocated by registered social landlords. Three out of 16 applicants under the Right to Buy scheme who were investigated later agreed to return their property.

The council also has two schemes dubbed Operation Bronze and Operation Silver. The former sees officers investigate false documents used to obtain tenancies and has led to 21 properties being recovered out of the total of 266 so far.

Operation Silver meanwhile involves data matching with credit checking agency technology and allows the cross-referencing of tenants’ details and the examination of any inconsistencies.

This has led to the return of 74 properties, with a further 12 tenants agreeing to recovery. Eighteen cases are expected to go through the courts.

The local authority said it would be raising its recoveries target for 2014.

Cllr Ian Wingfield, the borough’s cabinet member for housing, said: "Southwark has 20,000 people currently on the council waiting list so we need to make sure that every single council home is being occupied genuinely. This illegal occupancy is not only depriving people who genuinely need housing, but occupants are often also exploited by unscrupulous self styled 'landlords' who make huge sums in rent.”