Did you know? We are tackling fraud! | Latest news

We love to celebrate the good stuff and so we are sharing that our efforts to tackle housing fraud have delivered exceptional results - with the recovery of homes, protection of public funds, and safeguarding of fair housing allocation.

It has been a record-breaking year for our team in combating housing fraud and we've been able to stop a record amount of fraud and recover several properties for those waiting for a home.  

This is work that ensures homes go to those who truly need them, and that public money is spent fairly. 

Housing fraud undermines trust, misuses public funds, and delays access to housing for people in genuine need. 

Our Fraud Investigation and Enforcement has been pivotal in the success - the key achievements include:

• 19 homes recovered and returned to our housing stock
• 18 other frauds proven (12 mutual exchange refusals, six succession refusals)
• eight Right to Buy applications refused
• £31,737.76 of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction Scheme reclaimed

Together, these equate to a staggering £4,185,000 in fraud savings - nearly doubling last year's total of £2,325,000.

As part of our ongoing drive to strengthen fraud prevention and enforcement, our teams will continue to focus on this area.

Next steps
This success strengthens our approach for the year ahead. With improved fraud detection, cross-team collaboration, and strong enforcement and team support, we're continuing to drive up standards and protect our services for those who need them most.

How can you help?
If you suspect housing fraud or know something that doesn't seem right, please let us know - you can report concerns anonymously by emailing housing.fraud@arun.gov.uk or call 01903 737732.  

Together, we can protect homes and make sure all applicants on our housing register gets a fair chance of securing social housing. 

Thank you for helping us make our housing community stronger and fairer.