Hundreds of east London council homes are suspected to have been fraudulently allocated to tenants by local authority housing officers who allegedly demanded cash for properties. Police on Thursday arrested two people after executing a series of raids in Barking and Dagenham and Essex. The City of London Police and the council launched a joint bribery and corruption investigation - Operation Chandrila - after receiving allegations that several hundred social homes had been wrongly issued to people between November 2020 and December 2024.
Havering Council has uncovered and prevented multiple cases of housing fraud during the 2024/2025 financial year involving individuals unlawfully occupying council-owned homes, including one case where a tenant attempted to buy a property they were renting out while owning another home in the UK.