Everything we do as a Labour council, and everything we do when we get back into government, should help those with the least who play by the rules. Unfortunately, many Labour supporters from 10 years ago have come to see us as a soft touch on people who behave as though the rules don’t apply to them. Workers claiming benefits and moonlighting on the side; parents claiming they attend church to get their child into a good school; bankers paying less tax than the people cleaning their offices – rightly or wrongly, we are seen as being on their side. And that is fatal to our chances of getting back into power.
In Waltham Forest, we are currently working out a new agreement with the company that manages our council homes. There is an issue which wasn’t addressed in the previous agreement, but which should go to the heart of our Labour mission – tenancy fraud. Tenancy fraud covers a range of issues – illegally subletting council properties; obtaining a tenancy by deception; and making fraudulent succession claims. Every fraud has the same result: someone who needs a council home doesn’t get one, forcing them into temporary accommodation or homelessness.
Some may think that this is a fringe issue, or maybe that it is a victimless crime. Some may think that, because the people carrying out the fraud aren’t high-rolling City financiers, we shouldn’t tackle it. Both are wrong. There are victims, and the victims are poor people who play by the rules. That is why tackling tenancy fraud is a powerfully Labour thing to do – it helps those with the least who play fair and it addresses the housing shortage which represents the most grievous sin of omission of the New Labour years.
In Waltham Forest we have a housing waiting list of over 15,000 people who are eligible for a council home. Yet, most of those people will never get a home because there are more people than there are homes. 15,000 is a fairly standard number for a London borough, so there are nearly half a million people in London sitting on housing waiting lists. That’s two whole boroughs of people waiting for the most basic of rights – a home. That should shock and shame the sixth richest economy in the world.
The answer to that shame has to lie in building more affordable and decent homes, yet the government’s approach will make current social housing tenants pay for homes to be built for future tenants. This is absolutely outrageous – one of the poorest groups in society is subsidising one of the few groups poorer than they are. It would fit the Pickles narrative for Labour councils simply to fall into an impotent rage about this, shouting at the government but ultimately achieving nothing for our residents. In truth, there is little that we can do until we get back into power, but finding new ways to attack tenancy fraud is one way of making life better, at least for some families.
That’s why we’re sharing our data with other councils, housing associations and credit reference agencies to identify fraudulent tenancies. Together with the other Olympic boroughs, we’re working to address illegal subletting for the Olympic Park homes when they transfer to social housing. Tackling tenancy fraud will be part of the new agreement with our housing management company. None of these things will undo the damage caused by the government, but they will help. They show a Labour council being tough on those people who don’t play by the rules, and who have a direct impact on those people who do.
That should be the bread and butter of our party’s work, wherever and whenever we have power. ‘Play by the rules and we will help you’ – whenever Labour has won, it has been because the public believes that we get that basic insight. 1945, 1964, 1997: all were the same, as people understood that if they played fair, Labour would help them. If we want to add 2015 to that list, tackling tenancy fraud would be a good place to show that we have relearnt that lesson.
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Mark Rusling is is a councillor in the London borough of Waltham Forest
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Good stuff, Mark. Data matching is the way to catch people on the fiddle. Sending expensive staff out to knock on doors (which is part of what I do) is largely a waste of time.
Yes, but what is it exactly that you do to the people who are committing fraud? I would hope kick them out of their council houses, we’re already subsidising their living costs massively and then they try and defraud us? No excuses.