In-house counter fraud investigators saved the council £5.4 million in 2024/25 through the prevention and detection of fraud, a report to the Corporate Committee revealed this week.
The Annual Counter Fraud Report 2024-2025, discussed by committee members, shows that the counter-fraud team investigated 219 cases of fraud committed against the authority in the last year alone.
And, at a time when Lambeth is in the grip of a housing crisis, the team has continued its campaign to make sure Lambeth’s scarce supply of social housing goes to the residents who need it most. Tenancy fraud remains the highest fraud risk in Lambeth and for all London Councils; the Tenancy Fraud Forum estimates that 50,000 social homes in London are subject to some form of tenancy fraud.
Between April 2024 and March 2025, Lambeth’s counter-fraud team investigated 174 cases of tenancy fraud, including where properties were being illegally sub-let to other tenants. The investigations resulted in the recovery of 81 council properties, with a value of £3 million.
The service is committed to reviewing all tenancy successions and assignments, in addition to all Right to Buy applications – where tenants apply to buy their council homes at a discount. Lambeth’s investigations have resulted in eight fraudulent applications being identified preventing approximately £1 million in Right to Buy fraud.
In one case highlighted in the report, the team blocked a tenant from buying his council home in Clapham after they discovered he’d bought a property in Bristol in 2011 – four years before securing his Lambeth tenancy. The report also revealed that: “He also failed to declare that he had a large amount of savings that may have resulted in his application for housing being refused”. The tenant’s right to buy application was denied – saving the public purse £127,700 – and he gave up his council home immediately after notices had been served.
Counter fraud activity in other areas within the council include “No Recourse to Public Funds” and the Blue Badge scheme, which resulted in savings of £1.3 million. Staff investigations resulted in fourteen officers either resigning under investigation or being dismissed.
Word from the Cabinet
Cllr Claire Holland, Leader of Lambeth Council, said: “The council has a duty to ensure that every penny of council taxpayers’ money is spent as responsibly and effectively as possible. But at a time when the council is having to consider more challenging savings due to the demand-crisis facing councils where the costs of providing services are outstripping available funding, it is even more important that we investigate and stamp out every effort to defraud public funds.
“Our Counter Fraud team is working so hard to protect Lambeth and its residents from all those who try to cheat the system for financial gain, and their work tackling housing-related fraud is vital. When we are dealing with a housing crisis, and the huge cost of housing homeless people in temporary accommodation, we must ensure that our council homes only go to the people who need them most.”
To find out more about the different types of fraud or if you need to make a referral visit Report a potential fraud | Lambeth Council.
