Labour support for Tory MP's subletting Bill

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Communities, Local Government

Labour has pledged its support for a Private Members' Bill - tabled by a Tory MP - which will crackdown on social housing fraud.

Labour's shadow housing minster Jack Dromey said Richard Harrington's Private Members' Bill "builds on what Labour did in government".

The Bill is being taken through committee stage in Parliament this morning and will make a new criminal offence for the unlawful subletting of social housing properties.

Mr Dromey said: "We are grateful to the hon. Member for Watford (Richard Harrington) for how he has gone about the Bill, including for the all-party dialogue. In that dialogue, we expressed but two concerns, both of which he has taken on board. The first is that although it is right to criminalise those who let these tenancies, we must avoid criminalising those who might inadvertently take out a tenancy without knowing that it has been unlawfully let. Our second reservation is that—dare I say it?—there is sometimes a tendency on the part of some Government Members to demonise social housing and social tenants. That is wrong. The Bill seeks to tackle the behaviour of a small minority—albeit a small minority engaged in absolutely unacceptable behaviour—but the vast majority of social tenants are decent men and women."

He added that it is "wrong to sub-let unlawfully" and warned that it is particularly wrong in London, where he said: "...there is evidence of organised gangs preying on estates, encouraging tenants to move out and then letting out the homes, frequently changing the nature of those estates and streets as a consequence, to the disadvantage of the vast majority of the social tenants still living there."

It is thought that between 50,000 and 150,000 social houses are being illegally sub-let.

Mr Harrington said the most important thing the Bill will do is deter new tenants from thinking that they can sub-let at will for personal profit, when their needs might be such that they are no longer entitled to social housing, despite there being plenty of people who are entitled to it.

He said: "...the Bill creates new offences of illegally sub-letting, and there are ample safeguards within it that take the shadow Minister’s points into account."