Council Tax Premium: long-term empty homes and second homes

The request was partially successful.

Dear Conwy County Borough Council,

Following the decision of Conwy County Borough Council to levy a 100% Council Tax premium on Long-Term Empty Homes and Second Homes from April 2017, I would be grateful if you could provide the following information:

(1) The number of long-term empty homes, and, the number of second homes within your local authority

(2) The number of second homes within your local authority registered to owners in the following countries:
• England
• Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland
• Non-UK

(3) The number of long-term empty homes within your local authority registered to owners in the following countries:
• England
• Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland
• Non-UK

Yours faithfully,

Debbie Westlake

Uned Llyw-Gwyb / Info-Gov Unit, Conwy County Borough Council

Diolch am eich neges e-bost. Os ydych yn gofyn am fynediad at wybodaeth
dan delerau Deddf Rhyddid Gwybodaeth 2000 cewch ymateb o fewn ugain
niwrnod gwaith.

Thank you for your email. If you are requesting access to information
under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 you will receive a
response within twenty working days.

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Derek O'Connor, Conwy County Borough Council

9349-16

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your request below.

We are only able to provide an answer to Q1, the remaining Q2 & Q3 would require a large amount of time spent in identifying which country each owner resided in. I have therefore attached the relevant document outlining the timescales for attempting to locate this information.

I've probably underestimated the time and if so please feel free to contact if I need to amend the attached document.

Q1 - Long Term Empty Homes - 1,100 & Second Homes - 1,500.

Q2 & 3 - It is confirmed that the council likely holds information that falls within the description specified in your request. However, the Service involved has estimated that it will cost more than the appropriate limit to consider your request. The appropriate limit is specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 which for local government is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 working hours in determining whether the service holds the information, together with locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

A specific SQL report would need to be prepared and run to extract from the database a list those properties identified within the defined classes. Further work would then be required to locate those with a post code outside of Conwy. Once complete a sample of cases would require checking to confirm criteria is correct. A Manual exercise would then have to be carried out to extract from each of the lists which country the owner resided in. The combined total of both lists is estimated would be over 1,600 properties. Even allowing a conservative 5 (five) minutes per check it is estimated that it would take in excess of 130 working hours to determine the appropriate material and locate, retrieve and extract the information in reference to your request. Consequently, CCBC is not obliged under section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to respond to your request as it stands and please accept this correspondence as a refusal notice under S17.

You may wish to consider refining your request by narrowing its scope by being more specific about what information you particularly wish to obtain, including any dates or period of time relevant to the information required.

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 two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be sent to the address below.

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

if you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office – Wales, 2nd Floor, Churchill House, Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2HH
.
Yours sincerely

Uned Llywodreathu Gwybodaeth / Information Goverance Unit
Cyngor Bwrdeistef Sirol CONWY County Borough Council
E-Bost / E-Mail: [Conwy Council request email]

 

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