Some of you may have seen the publicity from my chambers and myself about the official publication on 30 July 2026 of the 3rd edition of my book on social housing fraud.
It has been a 10-year project and one that has been exhausting and stressful but ultimately rewarding and educative (for me anyway).
Alongside my continuing practice in many other areas of housing, property and public law it has also encouraged me to work with and meet so many inspirational and wonderful people in the housing fraud and publishing sectors.
So whilst I continue to shamelessly publicise the book, more importantly I would encourage those interested in this area of law to get involved in bodies such as the Tenancy Fraud Forum (TFF). Indeed, on 10 November 2026 the TFF holds its annual conference at the Kensington Town Hall in London.
Though I suspect I don’t have another book in me, I will continue to highlight and promote this area of law, and the results of local authorities and housing associations work. To give a recent example, a report outlining the performance of Internal Audit and Investigation between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026 presented to the London Borough of Ealing’s Audit Committee on 22 July 2026 showed
- 20 council properties had been recovered giving a notional saving of £840,000.
- 8 applications for council tenancies had been refused following investigation, giving a notional saving of £40,000.
- 4 Right to Buy applications had been refused following investigation, giving a notional saving of £64,000.
Finally, in the press release I drafted for the book’s publication I cited the famous Spike Milligan quote from the 1994 British Comedy Awards when he was presented with a lifetime achievement award;
“I am not going to thank anybody because I did it all myself.”
I hasten to add that this was done with the caveat that I couldn’t say that. So many people have helped, supported and endured me during this process. I thank them.
