Empty dwellings in St Helens

Dear Anna Nicholls

Thank you for your recent request for information, which will be treated
as a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000/Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 (EIR).

Your enquiry has been given a reference number 20210812-00013-1. Please
quote this reference in any future correspondence with us concerning this
matter.

If the information you are requesting falls under EIR (see [1]here for
more details) then a charge may be applicable in line with [2]guidance
from the Information Commissioner's Office. Once your request has been
reviewed you will be informed of an appropriate charge that may be
applied.

In accordance with the Act, a response will be sent to you within 20
working days from the date following the receipt of the request or receipt
of an applicable payment.

Kind regards,
St. Helens Council
01744 676789

------------------------ Original Email -------------- Received On:
11/08/2021 17:33:59 GDT
Subject:Freedom of Information request - Empty dwellings in St Helens

CAUTION: This email may be from an unknown source. Do not reply, click
links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know the
content is safe. Dear St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council, In terms of
the Freedom of Information Act of 2000, and subject to section 40(2) on
personal data, could you please provide me with your local authorityb .s
complete and most-recently updated list of residential properties owned by
companies or commercial concerns that have been vacant for the past 24
months or more, including the following fields: - Council Tax Band - Name
of owner/ Company owner (please note, no personal data required) - Full
Property Address (Number, Street, Postal Code, Town) - Date of Vacancy -
Actual annual rates charged (in Pounds) and/or categories of
reliefs/exemptions granted If you are unable to provide an absolute b
.Vacancyb . status, please provide the Exemptions and / or Reliefs that a
particular property may be receiving. Please provide this data in
Microsoft Excel file, capable of re-use, and under terms of the Open
Government Licence (reuse for any and all purposes, including commercial).
Yours faithfully, Anna Nicholls
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show quoted sections

Dear Miss Nichols 

Further to your Freedom of Information request please see the Council’s
response below. Please note that this is a substitute response to that
which was originally provided for the following reasons: 

In assessing your request in line with the provisions of the Act, we
regret that we are unable to comply with the request.  

Whilst the information you requested is held by us, upon consideration, we
believe that it is exempt from disclosure under Part II of the Freedom of
Information Act. In particular, we believe the following exemption(s)
apply to the information requested:-  

We believe this information is exempt from disclosure under:  

• Section 31(1)(a) “the prevention or detection of crime”; and  
• Section 40 “personal information” in respect of Council Tax payers. 

We believe this exemption applies, as placing this information within the
public domain it provides an opportunity for person(s) to
make fraudulent applications or requests for discounts, exemptions or
refunds. 

As this is a qualified exemption, we have also considered whether in all
the circumstances of the case, the public interest in withholding the
information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
In reaching our conclusion, we have considered the following factors in
favour of and against disclosure

• Reasons in favour of disclosure:
• For statistical purposes.  The Council would be happy to provide
summary data to support any research but not at case level.  

• Reasons against disclosure:  
• Disclosing details of individual Council Tax account details could
facilitate fraudulent applications or requests.  The Council
has already received fraudulent applications, and this is likely
to increase further if this information was placed in the public
domain.  

In order to reduce the risk of fraud and to protect the public purse, we
have therefore reached the decision that the public interest in
withholding the information is greater than disclosing it.  

Regards 

St.Helens Borough Council 

[1]www.sthelens.gov.uk/counciltax
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References

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1. http://www.sthelens.gov.uk/counciltax