Social housing and Right-to-Buy sales Data Request

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Dover District Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Dover District Council,

My name is Suraj Rajesh, and I am a second-year economics student at the University of Warwick.
 
I am a research assistant for a research project conducted by Professor Ludovica Gazze and Professor Thiemo Fetzer at the University of Warwick. As part of the project, I am studying the evolution of the Council's social housing stock.
 
I found the available data on aggregate social housing stock and Right-to-Buy sales at the local authority level. However, more detailed information would greatly assist in answering my research question. Therefore, I hereby submit a Freedom of Information request. I would like access to more detailed data, i.e. at a finer geographical level, on social housing stock and Right-to-Buy sales in the Council area for the period 1980-2021.
 
Ideally, the data would follow the following format:
Variable of interests: Properties sold under Right-to-Buy and Social/Council housing stock
Geographical unit: As granular as possible (e.g. full postcode or full address)
Time unit: As granular as possible (e.g. Date)
Period covered: As large as possible between 1980 and the present time.
Area Covered: As large as possible (e.g. all properties managed by the Council at any point in time)
Additional information, if possible: discount applied, property valuation, actual sale price, number of bedrooms, or other characteristics.
File format: .xlsx (Excel) or .csv
 
For indicative purposes, the following data format is expected:
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6bmchrwqb5wt9l...
 
Thank you for your time in considering my request.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Suraj Rajesh,
Economics student at the University of Warwick

DDC FreedomOfInformation, Dover District Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Rajesh

 

I am writing in respect of your enquiry for information held by this
Authority received on 24 January 2023 and to confirm that we have
completed the search for the information that you requested.  The
information you have sought is set out below.

 

I can confirm that the Council holds the following data in relation to
right to buy sales:

 

Financial year Houses Flats
2012/13 7 0
2013/14 17 0
2014/15 22 1
2015/16 43 4
2016/17 28 9
2017/18 25 11
2018/19 22 5
2019/20 21 2
2020/21 10 3
2021/22 13 4
2022/23 (to date) 12 3

 

I can confirm that the Council holds information falling within the
description specified in your request however the addresses of these
properties, the discount applied, the property valuation, the actual sale
price and the number of bedrooms are not held in a central location.  As
the data is not readily available and from our preliminary assessment, we
have estimated that the cost of complying with your request would exceed
the ‘appropriate limit’.  The appropriate limit has been specified in
regulations and for Local Government it is set at £450.  As there are over
1,000 property files held by the Council’s Legal Department, which
includes those properties sold under the right to buy and these files are
held in a larger storage area with over 8,000 files it is estimated that
it would take one person more than 2½ working days in determining where
the information is held, locating, retrieving and extracting the data. I
regret therefore, that on this occasion I must refuse your request in
accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.

 

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me.

 

I hope you find the information useful but if, for whatever reason, you
are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your
request you can request an internal review of our decision.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the procedures
provided by the Council.   The Information Commissioner can be contacted
at [1]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/.

 

Regards

 

Kerry

 

 

Kerry Scott
Corporate Services Officer
Dover District Council
Council Offices, White Cliffs Business Park, Whitfield, Dover CT16
    3PJ
Tel: 01304 872312
Email: [2][email address]
Web:  [3]http://dover.gov.uk
 
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and share your personal information and protect your privacy and rights.

 

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