Airbnb, Cabinet Office and councils share data to combat housing fraud

The Cabinet Office, local authorities and online accommodation letting service Airbnb have joined forces under a new data sharing agreement to tackle fraudulent lettings of social housing.

They said tenants who fraudulently sublet social housing would be penalised where they can be identified.

The Cabinet Office said some 5,800 social homes were suspected of being illegally sublet on short-term rental platforms in England, with each case costing taxpayers an estimated £78,300.

More than 450,000 properties will be covered by the data-sharing partnership between Airbnb and the participating local authorities, which at present include London boroughs, Edinburgh City Council, Birmingham City Council and Anglesey Council.

Early results found 470 potential cases of fraud across participating authorities, with fraudsters facing punishments including eviction, fines and up to two years imprisonment.

The initiative has been led by the Cabinet Office’s Public Sector Fraud Authority to try to increase the number of homes available to legitimate tenants.

It said this was the first time Airbnb had proactively shared data with the government to combat social housing fraud and it had agreed to allow local authorities to check social housing records against Airbnb listings.

Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington & Chelsea Council, said: “This council has long called for short-term letting platforms to share the data needed to identify illegal subletting and stop people profiteering from publicly funded homes, so we strongly welcome this agreement with Airbnb.

“We recovered 20 fraudulently let properties over the last year, and every one of those was a home taken away from a deserving household in genuine need of a safe, secure place to live.”

Paul Swaddle, leader of Westminster City Council said: “Westminster has seen the worrying proliferation of short term lets over several years and has continued to call for platforms to share the data needed to stop people profiting at the expense of our residents.

“For too long, a minority of operators have been allowed to break the rules, leaving us to deal with housing loss, fly tipping and noise nuisance.

“This agreement is an important first step and demonstrates what can be achieved when we work together. I have already had a productive meeting with senior executives from Airbnb who recognise the seriousness of the issue and have pledged to address our concerns. Other platforms now need to step up.”

Lisa Marçais, a general manager for Airbnb, said: “Social housing fraud has no place on Airbnb.

“We're proud to have driven the first ever data-sharing agreement of this kind in partnership with the Cabinet Office and local authorities across the country, but to truly tackle this problem we need the entire short term rental industry to follow suit and participate in this initiative.”

Mark Smulian