Illegal council house sublets cost taxpayers £2bn a year
I was amazed to hear that the new research by Experian says the number of council house tenants illegally subletting their homes is three times more than official figures suggest. Did you know that this is costing you and me, the taxpayer, around £2bn a year?
The new figures showing that over 157,000 council properties are being illegally sublet by council tenants are truly shocking. There is currently a severe short-fall in council housing, made more exaggerated with the number of new builds in decline, while waiting lists for deserving people are between 5 and 25 years long! It is a real shame that such a large number council tenants on secure tenancies and paying low rents are making a mockery of the system by earning more monies by way of rent from sub tenants or third parties.
There is a greater need for councils to have the ability to throw more resources at the investigation process, allowing them to carry out thorough due diligence to establish the number of residents who will be living in such a property. Unfortunately, concils are restricted due to funding issues, and therefore it falls once again to the Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, to do something about it. He needs to address this problem and help local authorities in reducing the high levels of social housing tenancy fraud cases.