Brighton & Hove City Council
Information Governance Team
Room 233
Hove Town Hall
Norton Road
Hove
BN3 3BQ
Mr Rob Heale
FOI Reference: 9874297
Direct Dial: 01273290524
Email: xxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Date: 10 February 2022
Dear Mr Heale
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Thank you for your request for information to Brighton & Hove City Council (‘the
council’) that was received on 4 January 2022. We would like to apologise for
the delay in receiving our response.
We have now processed your request and our response is below.
Your request:
Please answer the following under the Freedom Of information Act
relating to the use of temporary housing by the Council:-
1. How many people (individuals) were housed in temporary
accommodation by Brighton and Hove Council in the following years:
2015/16; 2016/17; 2017/18; 2018/19; 2019/20; and 2020/21?
2. How many people (individuals) were housed in the following forms of
accommodation:-
(a) Bed and Breakfast/Hotels?
(b) Private Rented accommodation?
(c) Under the Council's rent/lease scheme or in similar privately owned
housing sub-managed by the Council?
(d) Other types of temporary accommodation?
3. How many people (individuals) are currently housed outside the
Brighton and Hove area?
4. Are those people in temporary accommodation included in the Housing
Waiting List?
Our response:
In processing your request we liaised with colleagues within Housing as they
would hold the information in relation to your request were this information to be
held by the council.
We can confirm that the information you have requested is held by the council
but is exempt from disclosure for the reasons detailed below.
The
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) requires us to comply with a
request, unless it would be too expensive to do so. Under s.12 (
Cost of
compliance exceeds appropriate limit) of the Act, the cost limit for the council is
£450 i.e. 18 hours at the rate of £25 per person per hour.
The cost limit allows us to take into account when estimating the cost of
complying with a request, time spent determining whether we hold the
information requested; identifying, locating and retrieving it and extracting the
information from the relevant document(s).
We maintain records relating to numbers of households and our system will not
report on individuals. In order to provide an accurate number in response to
your question it would be necessary to undertake a manual count of individuals
within each household record, for each of the periods required.
We estimate that the total time required to undertake this activity alone would
exceed the 18 hour limit. We are therefore unable to process your request as
to do so would exceed to the cost limit as set out in s.12 of the Act.
Should you wish to submit a new request that may fall within the 18 hour time
limit, you may wish to consider the following:
• Narrowing the time frame of your request.
• Amend request from number of individuals to households
Please note any new request will be treated as such and the 20 working day
limit will start again and that there is no guarantee that any new request will fall
within the 18 hour limit.
Please quote the reference number 9874297 in any future communications.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to
ask for an Internal Review. Internal Review requests should be submitted within
40 working days of the date of receipt of this response and should be
addressed to:
xxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
or by post to the address at the top of this letter.
If you are still dissatisfied with the Council’s response after the Internal Review
you have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website:
www.ico.org.uk
We will now close your request as of this date.
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Team
Please note that due to the current Coronavirus (Covid 19) pandemic, we are
unable to respond to or receive telephone calls or hard copy correspondence.
Please contact us via email should you have any queries.