Chartered Institute of Housing publishes guide on data sharing and tenancy fraud

The Chartered Institute of Housing has published advice for social landlords on data sharing and tenancy fraud.

The guide has been produced by the Making Best Use of Stock team, which is hosted by the Institute and funded by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

The MBUS team specialises in tackling tenancy fraud, which the National Fraud Authority says costs the state £900m a year.

The guide provides good practice examples from across the housing sector.

David Clayton, head of the MBUS team at CIH, said: "Affordable housing is in desperately short supply in this country and yet we have this huge problem of tenancy fraud, which deprives thousands of families of suitable accommodation.

"We are here to help housing associations spot the people intent on abusing the social housing system and we know data sharing is a key way to address this problem."

The date sharing guide will be available for download here.

The Department for Communities and Local Government launched a consultation in January this year on plans to make unlawful subletting of social housing a criminal offence.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps argued that current sanctions were so weak that the worst that could happen was the council home being taken away.

However, some authorities have successfully launched prosecutions have been successful – notably Camden Council, which secured the conviction of a tenant under the Fraud Act.