Exempt accommodation
Dear Bedford Borough Council,
This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.
This request concerns “exempt accommodation”. The UK Parliament defines this as: “Supported housing which is exempt from certain Housing Benefit provisions. It is a sector which houses more marginalised groups with support needs, such as recent prison leavers; care leavers; those fleeing domestic violence; and homeless people with substance dependence or mental health issues.”
I understand that housing benefit for people in “exempt accommodation” is paid by the council directly to landlords.
I would like to request the following information:
(1) Please state how much housing benefit has been paid by the council directly to landlords to provide “exempt accommodation” for those in receipt of the benefits. Please provide the figures for each of the past three financial years (2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21), as well as any available data for 2021/22.
(2) Please provide a list of the 20 landlords that have received the highest amount in housing benefit from the council for providing “exempt accommodation” for those in receipt of the benefits. Again, please provide this information for each of the past three financial years (2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21) as well as any available data for 2021/22. For each year, please (a) provide the landlord’s full name or company name, (b) state the total amount they received from the council in each year.
I would like to highlight how the Information Commissioner’s Office has previously ruled that this type of information should be disclosed. For example, in 2015, the ICO held that Torbay Council was not entitled to withhold the names of landlords who have directly received the largest amounts of housing benefit. In 2014, the ICO also ruled that Halton Borough Council was wrong to withhold similar information.
I would like to receive the data in an Excel format. If you feel that a substantive response to this request is not possible within a reasonable timeframe, I would be grateful if you could contact me and provide assistance as to how I can refine the request. If you need any clarification, please contact me.
I look forward to receiving a response in 20 working days. Many thanks.
Yours faithfully,
Jenna Corderoy
Thank you for your e-mail requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
We will proceed with the request which we received today. It is our
intention to have the information delivered to you as soon as possible
otherwise within the statutory 20 working days.
In considering the request, it may be subject to exemptions that the
Council rely on to refuse the information. Some exemptions are absolute
and some only apply where the public interest in maintaining the exemption
outweighs that of disclosing the information.
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If applicable, we will issue you with a fee notice. This will detail the
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information is available on the EIR page of Bedford Borough Council’s
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Bedford BC - OFFICIAL-Unsecure
Dear Jenna Corderoy
Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No.18628
I refer to your recent enquiry for information held by the Council.
Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the authority must
state whether or not the information exists and I confirm that we do hold
the information you requested.
Please find the information you requested attached
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. For
further information regarding Re-use of Public Sector information please
see link below
If after viewing the information you are for whatever reason unhappy with
our response to your application you are entitled to pursue any
dissatisfaction through the Council's Internal Review Procedure. Pursuant
to Section 17 (7) of the Act the procedure provided by the Council for
dealing with complaints about the determination of this request for
information is the Council’s FOI Complaints Procedure, a copy of which can
be obtained on request or is set out at:
[1]https://www.bedford.gov.uk/council-and-d...
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information
Bedford Borough Council
Please reply to: [2][email address]
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