Newham votes to join counter fraud hub
0London Borough of Newham’s cabinet this week voted to become the latest to join the London Counter Fraud Hub.
The hub is supplied by CIPFA, in partnership with BAE Systems, and has an initial focus on identifying fraud in relation to the council tax single person discount, business rates, and housing tenancy.
It is hoped to increase the range of targeted fraud at a later date.
Councils and third parties supply data to the hub, which then uses advance analytics to flag up alerts.
The hub was launched in December 2015, as an initiative supported by London Ventures, a partnership between London Councils and EY.
Testing has been carried out by four pilot authorities: Camden, Ealing, Islington and Croydon.
Results suggest that if all 33 boroughs signed up, the hub would save between £15m and £30m in its first year, and recover 1,500 council homes that are illegally sub-let.
Councils will have to pay a joining fee of £75,000, plus an annual subscription fee of £90,000 for large authorities like Newham, and £70,000 for small authorities.
The GLA supports the council tax and business rates elements of the hub.
Councils wishing to sign up will have to do so for seven years, a period of time necessary to recoup the large upfront investment.
For the scheme to be financially viable, it needs 26 of London’s authorities to sign up.
Over time, it is hoped the hub will expand to include authorities bordering on London, housing associations and other public bodies.
Newham, along with the other London local authorities, signed a memorandum of understanding, making a non-binding commitment to the project in 2015.
The borough estimates that the benefit of joining could be as high as £1.4m over the seven-year life of the contract, without consideration of the extra funding that will be needed as the hub’s activities expand.
