Southwark Council has 19,000 people on its housing waiting list.

At the start of the year I asked Southwark Council internal audit management whether could use commercial data matchers to fight fraud. So I’m delighted this technique originally brought to work on illegal claims for Council Tax Single Persons Discount is now being applied to council properties and the housing waiting list. Initially 2,000 properties out of the 45,000 have been highlighted as being good leads for further investigation. Of the 2,000, 900 have really good data matches. So many matches that a new team has been created to chase them all up. The council isn’t yet clear how many on the council housing waiting list shouldn’t be. But we can expect a large reduction.

The technique uses commercial credit agencies databases and finds examples such as a tenant who is supposed to be living in Southwark but who bank statements go elsewhere, individuals with a history of fraud and similar data matching. The data matching will also work with other boroughs cross-checking details against what is held elsewhere.

2,000 recovered homes would mean around 5,200 desperate people on the housing waiting list being found a property. And 2,000 property matches the estimated 5% across London of illegally sub-let council housing. So its likely to be 2,000 and not 900. Last year Southwark officers thought they were doing really well in recovering 150 such properties so quite an uphill struggle to deliver those 2,000 quickly.

This is such a good technique that Southwark Liberal Democrat have written to all housing associations with properties in Southwark to ask when they will use this method. It may well reveal more opportunities to legally house people.

Where else could we use this technique – school place admissions. I’ve often had people querying whether all the families obtaining places are genuinely living close to a school. It’s already being applied to Council Tax Single Persons Discounts.

Do you have any ideas?