Evictions and Out-of-Area Rehousing of Council Tenants affected by Welfare Reform
Dear West Berkshire Council,
I am seeking information about the potential impact of central government welfare reform policies on eviction rates and geographical displacement of households with council housing tenancies. My information request relates to three welfare reform policies:
- Under-Occupancy (also known as Removal of Spare Room Subsidy / Bedroom Tax)
- The Benefit Cap
- Universal Credit roll-out
I understand that under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 there is a duty to assist and advise the requester. I would appreciate your advice if you think my request needs any clarification in order to get the information that I am looking for, or if it would exceed the cost limit in its present form.
1. Please provide an annual breakdown since April 2010 of the total number of unique council tenancies - including the total number of people recorded as living in them - that have been evicted due to the non-payment of rent arrears.
2. For each year of this annual breakdown since April 2013, please disclose how many of these evicted households - including the total number of people recorded as living in them - had at some point been affected by:
a. Under-occupancy
b. Under-occupancy and the Benefit Cap
c. Under-occupancy and the Benefit Cap and Universal Credit roll-out
3. How many of the evicted households affected by a, b, or c - including the total number of people recorded as living in them - went on to make a successful homelessness application to the local authority?
4. Of these successful homeless applications, please disclose how many households - including the total number of people recorded as living in them - were placed in temporary accommodation in a different local authority area and disclose the destination local authority area in each case.
Yours faithfully,
Ffion Weaver
FoI/2018/82
Dear Ms Weaver,
Request for information: Evictions and Out-of-Area Rehousing of Council
Tenants affected by Welfare Reform
Thank you for your request received 23^rd January 2018; we will seek to
respond within twenty working days.
Yours sincerely,
Suzi Kenchington
Information Access Compliance Officer
Strategic Support,
West Berkshire Council, Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury, RG14 5LD
email: [1][email address]
' 01635 519860 (external) ' 2860 (internal)
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FoI/2018/82
Dear Ms Weaver,
Request for information: Evictions and Out-of-Area Rehousing of Council
Tenants affected by Welfare Reform
Please see below the Council’s response to your request for information.
You have asked;
1. Please provide an annual breakdown since April 2010 of the total
number of unique council tenancies - including the total number of people
recorded as living in them - that have been evicted due to the non-payment
of rent arrears.
West Berkshire is a non-stock holding authority. Therefore, the only
information the Council’s holds to respond to this request will relate to
temporary accommodation.
It is possible to complete a manual search of the TA files to collate the
number of people which have been evicted since April 2013 however,
regardless of the number (which is estimated to be in the region of 5),
the answer to your other questions would be as follows;
2a) 0
2b) 0
2c) 0
3) 0 – this is because no duty would be owed to someone intentionally
homeless from temporary accommodation
4) 0 - as above.
Therefore, please could you confirm whether you would still like to
receive the answer for question 1 in relation to Temporary Accommodation
only?
Yours sincerely,
Suzi Kenchington
Information Access Compliance Officer
Strategic Support,
West Berkshire Council, Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury, RG14 5LD
email: [1][email address]
' 01635 519860 (external) ' 2860 (internal)
P Do you really need to print this email?
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