Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to assist local authorities to combat council tax fraud.

In March, the government published the sector-produced Local Government Counter Fraud and Corruption Strategy. This set out a series of recommendations encouraging councils, to enhance their capability to tackle all types of fraud including Council Tax. In November the government published the National Fraud Initiative report which detailed the cancellation, by local authorities, of over 37,000 Council Tax Single Person Discount claims for fraud and error over the last two years as a result of the data matches provided by NFI. £11 million of underpayments are being recovered and future underpayments of £24 million have been prevented.