Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA

Contact: Information Team
[Croydon Borough Council request email]

NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email. If
you have a processing request, please ensure you quote that reference in
your emails to us.

Dear Afia Ahmad

Freedom of information request - FOI/8352

Subject: FOI - Properties owned by Croydon Council

Your request is being considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days, subject to the application of
any exemptions. Where consideration is being given to exemptions the 20
working day timescale may be extended to a period considered reasonable
depending on the nature and circumstances of your request. In such cases
you will be notified and, where possible, a revised time-scale will be
indicated. In all cases we shall attempt to deal with your request at the
earliest opportunity.

If we are unable to provide you with the information requested we will
notify you of this together with the reason(s) why, and details of how you
may appeal.

Please note that the directorate team may contact you for further
information where we believe that the request is not significantly clear
for us to respond fully. 

Kind Regard

Information Management Team

Croydon Digital Services

Assistant Chief Executive Directorate

7th Floor, Zone B

Bernard Weatherill House

8 Mint Walk

Croydon CR0 1EA

Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA

Contact: Information Team
[Croydon Borough Council request email]

Dear Afia Ahmad

Request FOI/8352

Freedom of Information Request

Your request has been considered under the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act. Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding
to you. Specifically, you have requested the following information:

How many 4 bedroom properties (houses) are owned and tenanted by Croydon
Borough Council and how many are currently available.

4 bedroom properties owned - 342
4 bedroom properties available/void - 9

How many 5 bedroom properties (houses) are owned and tenanted by Croydon
Borough Council and how many are currently available.

5 bedroom properties owned - 31
5 bedroom properties available - 0

Could you please provide the full addressing, including postal codes of
these properties?

This information is considered to be exempt under the exemption provided
by Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act, as it is believed
that disclosure of the information you have requested may constitute
personal data as defined under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).
Disclosure of this information is likely to lead to a breach of the
provisions of the DPA as we do not have the consent of the data subject to
disclose the information to you neither do we consider it reasonable in
all the circumstances to disclose the information to you without the
consent of the data subject as we owe the data subject a duty of
confidentiality.

Having carefully considered your request, we are satisfied that the
information requested does amount to personal information as defined by
the Data Protection Act 1998 and as such it is considered to be exempt
information under the exemption set out in Section 40 (2) of the FoIA.
While this exemption is absolute (and not subject to considerations of the
public interest) the test to judge whether or not the exemption applies,
requires the Council to decide whether or not releasing the information
would contravene any of the Data Protection Principles. 

There are a number of factors that could indicate whether disclosure would
be fair, including the nature of the information, the consequences of
disclosure, the individual/s reasonable expectations that information
would remain ‘private’ and consideration of any legitimate public
interest, which may be considered to owed to the general public, to
disclose of the requested information. As stated previously even if it is
considered to be fair, any such disclosure must still be lawful, which
would not be the case if to do so would breach any legislation or common
law, including a breach of a duty of confidence. We do not consider that
there are any legitimate public interest issues that require the
information to be released into the public domain; without which, to do so
is would be a breach of the Data Protection Principles. 

Furthermore, the Council is of the view that for those empty properties
the information is exempt from disclosure under Section 31 (1) (a) (Law
Enforcement) of the Freedom of information Act.

Section 31 states:
(1) Information which is not exempt information by virtue of section 30 is
exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be
likely to, prejudice—
(a) the prevention or detection of crime,

The factors in favour of maintaining the exemption were:

a.         The inherent public interest in the prevention of all crimes
(even those where the damage caused may be limited or the chances .of
securing a conviction problematic)
b.         The cost of securing properties vulnerable to squatting and
repairing damage resulting from it, whether that cost falls on the private
or public purse.
c.         The cost of evicting squatters.
d.         The potential detrimental impact on those directly affected by
criminal damage.
e.         The impact on the community in the vicinity of a squatted
property.
f.          The problems faced by Council staff having to deal with
squatting and it consequences.
g.         The impact on police resources.
h.         The direct financial cost caused by property stripping.

Therefore, after careful consideration of the above issues, you will not
be provided with the requested information.

The Council publishes Access to Information requests and responses on its
online Disclosure Log. (Any request included within this log will be
anonymised appropriately)

To view the Council’s Disclosure Log, please visit our website available
here:

[1]The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act | Croydon Council
(disclosure-log.co.uk)

If you are dissatisfied with the way the Council has handled your request
under the Freedom of Information Act you may ask for an internal review. 
This should be submitted to us within 40 working days of this response. 
You can do this by outlining the details of your complaint by:

Email:        [Croydon Borough Council request email]

Writing:     Information Team

London Borough of Croydon
Bernard Weatherill House
3^rd Floor - Zone E
8 Mint Walk
Croydon CR0 1EA

Any requests received after the 40 working day time limit will be
considered only at the discretion of the council.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire   SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely 

Croydon Council

References

Visible links
1. https://croydon.disclosure-log.co.uk/