Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking with the National Fraud Initiative to tackle evasion of the council tax second homes premium.

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI), as part of the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA), works closely with local authorities to help them identify and prevent fraud.

As part of this, the NFI is currently collaborating with local authorities to understand the fraud risks related to council tax second home premiums. The NFI will use that insight to inform options to detect and prevent fraud in this area.

This collaboration is also helping local authorities to address fraud in other areas of council tax, such as fraudulent claims for a ‘single person discount’ (SPD). In its most recent report, the NFI detected £20.4m in fraudulent SPDs in England, with £20.2m, or 99%, in recovery.