Henry Smith
Main Page: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Mr Pickles
I am afraid to say that, despite Formby being the apple of my eye and a wonderful place to invest, the process will be at borough level.
Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)
20. What plans he has to tackle the abuse of social housing tenancies.
The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)
We have set out proposals to give social landlords the tools to identify and recover properties that have been subject to fraudulent activity via sub-letting.
Henry Smith
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his answer. What support can his Department give to local authorities to stop the abusive activity of illegal sub-letting and of those who over-occupy their social tenancy homes, perhaps with friends or family?
Grant Shapps
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to point to the scale of the problem, which is enormous, perhaps a multi-billion pound per annum scandal, and this Government are absolutely determined to crack down on it. I introduced a consultation on sub-letting, stating that our preferred option is to criminalise the activity. We intend to do exactly what is outlined in the consultation and, in doing so, to end the scandal that means that such homes do not go to the people who rightly need them.