Government plan to pay £500 to snoop on your neighbour

Members of the public will receive £500 rewards to "shop their neighbours" via telephone hotlines under a scheme announced today.

The handouts will go to the first 1,000 people who provide tip-offs that lead to an "unlawfully occupied" home being repossessed.

The government plans are aimed at the illegal sub-letting of social housing. In London, £250,000 will be available in rewards.

As well as hotlines, special websites and email addresses will be set up to allow informants to pass on their suspicions, while there will also be publicity campaigns to encourage reporting.

Ministers say the cash incentives will help ensure that all council and housing association homes are lived in by those genuinely in need.

As many as 50,000 properties nationwide are said to be occupied by the wrong tenants.

Ministers say the scheme, which will cost £4 million, will help tackle other problems such as prostitution, drug production, illegal immigration and anti-social behaviour that can occur in sub-let housing.

But critics said the payments were a further "dangerous" example of ministers encouraging unwarranted snooping.

Dylan Sharpe of campaign group Big Brother Watch claimed the move showed the Government was creating "an army of citizen snoopers".

Announcing the payments today, housing minister John Healey said the problem of unlawfully occupied social housing was at its worst in inner-city areas, where up to one in 20 properties were affected.

"Public tip-offs are vital in tackling this problem," he said.

"We can't allow cheats to hang on to the tenancies of council houses they don't need and don't live in."

He said the crackdown could free up as many as 10,000 homes.

Officials will be told to be alert to the risk of malicious tip-offs.