Taxpayers lose around £2bn a year to social housing cheats, according to a report by the Tenancy Fraud Forum (TFF).
Tenancy fraud is a criminal offence which can include making false applications for homes or for Right To Buy provisions, as well as subletting social homes while living elsewhere – for which a fraudster can face two years’ prison time.
Shimeon Lee, a policy analyst at the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Social homes should be for families in genuine need, not fraudsters turning taxpayer-funded properties into private cash machines.”
Mr Lee called for the Government to force other major rental platforms to share data to tackle the scale of the issue.
Airbnb had previously refused to share information with councils investigating homes advertised on its website, blaming data protection laws, but was commanded to do so by a High Court Order in 2022.
Investigators had been relying on patchy data, including council tax records, social media posts and even mobile phone surveillance, to catch out cheats.
Detection rates were unreliable as a result. These fell by more than 40pc in the last decade in London, partly because of funding cuts from central government, according to the TFF.
‘Abusing the system’
In the 12 months to April, Barnet council investigated more than 450 cases of tenancy fraud, with 59 properties recovered and three criminal prosecutions.
In June, Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association (ISHA) declared a “tenancy fraud amnesty”, allowing potential fraudsters to return their keys without facing prosecution until July 17.
Elizabeth Campbell, the leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, said it had recovered 20 illegally sublet homes in the last year.
She 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.”
