Inside GovernmentThe Next Steps in Tackling Tenancy

Inside Government
The Next Steps in Tackling Tenancy Fraud

Thursday 19th January 2012,
09:00 - 16:00
Central London

Callcredit is thrilled to announce that Director of Public Sector Andrew Davis will be speaking in the main plenary Chair Slot at the Tackling Tenancy Fraud Event. We will also be present on an exhibition stand throughout the day

This timely and informative forum will offer delegates the opportunity to hear the government's latest plans on tackling tenancy fraud and learn how to establish efficient and cost-effective methods for managing unlawful subletting.

Overview

Social housing is currently going through a period of rapid change, especially in the way it is supplied and funded. According to the Audit Commission there are around 80,000 people in temporary accommodation at a cost of over £1billion per annum. Furthermore, it is estimated that as many as 50,000 council homes are being occupied illegally, with tenancy fraud costing £5 billion a year and 1.8 million families waiting for a council home. The cost to councils to put people in temporary accommodation is also estimated to be around £20,000 each year per tenant.

The government sees helping local organisations deliver high quality social homes, improving flexibility in social housing and protecting the vulnerable as a key priority, and in November 2010, published 'Local decisions: A Fairer Future for Social Housing - A Consultation,' announcing plans for radical reform of the social housing system, to make it fairer and provide more local flexibility to landlords to use their social housing stock in a way which best meets the needs of individual households and their local area.

  Agenda

This timely and informative forum will offer delegates the opportunity to hear the government's latest plans on tackling tenancy fraud and learn how to establish efficient and cost-effective methods for managing unlawful subletting.

09:00 Registration and Coffee
09:50 Chair's Welcome Address                                                                                                     David Orr, Chief Executive, National Housing Federation (invited)
10:00

Morning Keynote: Tackling Tenancy Fraud - An Update From Government

  • The government's crackdown on housing fraud
  • Allocating the £19 million to tackle tenancy fraud
  • Potentially using the services of credit reference agencies to help identify potential cheats
  • Making the best use of housing stock
  • Raising awareness amongst frontline staff
  • The importance of sharing information and data to detect and prevent fraud


Paul Downie, Deputy Director, Housing and Planning Group, Department for Communities and Local Government (invited)
10:20

Tackling Tenancy Fraud - Protecting the Public Purse and the National Fraud Initiative

  • Analysing and assessing tenancy fraud
  • Tenancies recovered from fraud
  • Detected fraud in local government
  • Adequately addressing housing tenancy fraud and single person discounts on council tax fraud
  • Minimising fraud opportunities
  • NFI - Sophisticated data matching exercise to prevent and detect fraud


Alan Bryce, Head of Counter Fraud, Advisory Services, Audit Practice, Audit Commission  (invited)
10:40

Data Handling and Exchange: Using Data to Identify Fraud

  • Access to data and increased facilities for matching of data to help combat fraud
  • Balancing information sharing with necessity and proportionality
  • Determining 'appropriate' security
  • Compatibility with current data legislation
  • Limits to data usage, exchange and matching for anti-fraud purposes
  • Understanding data protection legislation when making requests for information


Iain Bourne, Group Manager - Policy Delivery, Information Commissioner's Office (invited)
11:00 Questions and Answers Session
11:20 Coffee and Networking
11:50

Detecting and Preventing Fraud

  • A blueprint for tackling social housing tenancy fraud
  • Provision of specialist investigation teams
  • Increased prevention activity
  • Data sharing
  • Supporting local authorities to use new funding in the most cost effective manner to counter-fraud
  • The role of specialist investigation teams in the recovery of unlawfully held properties
  • Fraud prevention: carrying out credit checks before issuing housing places
  • New Local Authority Fraud Strategy


Rachael Tiffen, Co-Head, Public Sector Fraud, National Fraud Authority (invited)
12:10

Tackling Unlawful Subletting and Occupancy

  • Good practice guidance for social landlords
  • New national action team dedicated to tackling tenancy fraud
  • Encourage all landlords to develop an improved awareness of the existing levels of tenancy misuse and unlawful subletting within their own stock
  • Challenging landlords to address unlawful subletting and build capacity
  • How to build a strong case to achieve a positive judgment
  • Increasing levels of partnership working between local authorities, housing associations and other landlords at a local level to establish the most efficient and cost-effective methods of managing unlawful subletting
  • Development of cost analysis information


Joanne Kent-Smith, Senior Policy and Practice Officer, Chartered Institute of Housing (invited)
12:30 Questions and Answers Session
12:45 Lunch and Networking
13:45

Case Study: The Social Fraud Initiative

  • The success of appointing a Social Housing Fraud Manager to help detect fraudsters
  • Collaborate with all housing associations and tenant management
  • Organisations to deter and prevent fraud
  • Working with the community to gather intelligence
  • Using appropriate enforcement measures to recover empty homes
  • Recovering abandoned properties
  • Best practice


Mark Henderson, Director of Housing, Wolverhampton Homes (invited)
14:05

Effective Partnership-Working to Tackle Tenancy Fraud

  • Tenant profiling and tenancy audit in partnership with private sector heating contractor
  • Undertaking a rolling programme of tenancy audits and customer profiling, combining the annual gas servicing and safety visit with the collection of household information for every tenancy by the contractor
  • Using the information to support customer profiling and tenancy audit activities
  • Lessons learnt from partnership working?


Simone Russell, Director of Operations, Welwyn Hatfield Community Housing Trust  (invited)
14:25 Questions and Answers Session
14:40 Coffee and Networking
15:05

Tackling Sub-Letting: Adopting a Joint Approach

  • Working alongside local authorities to target those who sub-let their properties
  • The level of evidence required before repossession action should be sought on the grounds of subletting
  • How to recover illegally sub-let properties
  • Working with local authorities to return properties to the social housing market
  • Best practice examples


Simone Graham, Unauthorised Occupancy Specialist , Southern Housing Group (invited)
15:25

Investigating and Prosecuting Fraud

  • Preventing and detecting fraud
  • Investigating efficiently
  • Stopping or reducing payment in fraudulent cases
  • Prosecuting offenders where appropriate
  • Working in partnership to tackle fraud
  • Examples of successful joint investigations
                                                                                                             

Simon Maddocks, Head of Governance, Croydon Council (invited)
15:45 Questions and Answers Session
16:00 Afternoon Chair's Summary and Close

*programme subject to change without notice


Audience

Delegates will be drawn from heads of housing, heads of housing needs, housing solutions managers, heads of family services, financial inclusion managers, and housing and community directors and will be drawn from local authorities, central government, housing associations, RSL's, voluntary sector, energy and construction industry, and all those with an interest in the housing agenda.