Richard Harrington has expressed his delight that his Bill on tackling social housing fraud has passed both the Money Resolution and Committee Stage with unanimous support from MPs from all parties.
Richard’s Bill will create a new criminal offence to tackle the unlawful subletting of social housing properties which is estimated to occur in between 50,000 and 150,000 properties across the UK at a very high cost to the tax payer.
Provisions for much needed data sharing which will help Local Authorities to detect and prosecute this fraud as well as extending the legislation to Wales as well as England were added to the Bill at this stage.
The purpose of the Bill is to introduce effective deterrents to prevent the crime, punish those who carry out the fraud, and most importantly free up thousands of social housing properties for those on the waiting lists who truly deserve them.
Richard said:
“This is an important step in the progress of the Bill and I have been very pleased to have received so much support from both sides of the House of Commons.
“The Bill will make a real difference in Watford, freeing up properties for the 4,000 plus people on the housing waiting list and works in the favour of the overwhelming majority of law abiding social housing tenants, many of whom who have been in contact to tell me they support the Bill.
“The data access provisions added to the Bill today will also be hugely important to the Local Authorities responsible for tackling this type of fraud and these groups have described the measures as the most crucial part of the legislation.
“I look forward to bringing the Bill to the next stage later this month, as it makes progress towards becoming law.”