National Hunter and NAFN stop nearly £8M in UK housing fraud since 2017

The collaboration between application fraud prevention firm National Hunter and the National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN) has stopped nearly £8 million in fraudulent Right to Buy and Right to Acquire applications since launching in 2017. The figure, initially reported as over £6 million, has climbed as the partnership expanded to cover Covid-19 business grant fraud, shared ownership fraud, and subletting abuse.

The service functions through a referral gateway that lets local authorities and housing associations flag suspicious applications to NAFN. The network reviews each submission and, when warranted, securely shares intelligence with National Hunter, which cross-checks the information against its mortgage application database. Results flow back to NAFN and, where appropriate, reach mortgage providers. This circular process links financial services firms with public sector investigators while maintaining data protection compliance.

Forty-eight councils have tapped the service to date, handling roughly 100 enquiries each year. The partnership won the Public Sector Counter Fraud Award 2026 for Public-Private Partnership Excellence, and broadened its remit in both 2020 and 2025.

The announcement arrives alongside the UK Government's revision of the Right to Buy scheme, which altered eligibility rules and discount ceilings earlier in 2026. Changes to the scheme that adjust the attractiveness of discounts typically shift fraud risk in lockstep—historically, larger discounts have correlated with a spike in speculative or dishonest applications, while stricter eligibility criteria can push fraudsters toward more sophisticated false documentation.

The partnership has enabled organisations to prevent fraud, save millions of pounds and ensure that much-needed social housing remains available for those who genuinely need it, said Mark Astley, director of NAFN Data and Intelligence Services.

The service operates at a precise crossroads of financial intelligence sharing and public sector accountability that has drawn growing regulatory scrutiny in the UK. The Digital Information and Smart Data Act, which received Royal Assent in 2025, widened the legal grounds for cross-sector data sharing in fraud prevention contexts—a framework that partnerships like this one were designed to anticipate. The FCA's Financial Crime Guide also encourages financial institutions to coordinate with public sector bodies where data can be shared lawfully and proportionately.

For financial institutions, the commercial case is clear. Mortgage providers that receive intelligence through NAFN and National Hunter can avoid funding purchases that are either fraudulent at the application stage or likely to become contested assets. The reputational and provisioning costs of lending against a property entangled in a Right to Buy fraud dispute are significant.

Public-private data-sharing consortia are emerging as a recognised model in UK counter-fraud infrastructure. Cifas, the fraud prevention membership organisation, and the Insurance Fraud Bureau operate on broadly similar principles: pooling data from multiple participants to spot patterns that no single institution could identify alone. National Hunter's expansion into the public sector, applying the same retrospective search methodology it uses in mortgage fraud, is a natural evolution of that model.

Dave Rossi, managing director of National Hunter, framed the core principle as responsibly sharing intelligence across sectors to prevent criminals from exploiting legitimate lenders to defraud the public purse. According to the release, the next phase involves continued expansion into additional fraud typologies as they surface.