Dear Berti

Request for Information RFI-4957-22

Thank you for your request for information relating to Housing Expenditure
which was received on 25 July 2022.

In accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
the council will respond to your request within 20 working days, saying
whether we have the information that you want, and if there will be any
charges. 

If, for any reason, we cannot provide you with the information, we will
tell you why.

If we need to clarify your request, we will contact you again.

Update – Your Information Rights Requests and Coronavirus:

Walsall Council is working extremely hard to ensure the safety and
wellbeing of all residents of the borough during this difficult period. As
part of this working practices and priorities within the council may need
to change in line with advice from the Government and our own Public
Health Service.

This may mean that our usual processes for responding to requests for
information will need to change, and unfortunately you may experience
delays in receiving the information you have requested.

We apologise in advance if we cannot respond within the statutory
timeframe of your request - however should your request be effected we
will let you know and will endeavour to keep you updated on our progress.

We ask that show understanding and patience as we work through this
difficult time and we assure that we will do our upmost to ensure you
receive a response to your request as soon as possible

In the meantime, if you need to contact me about your request, please do
so quoting the above reference number.

Yours sincerely,

Julie Noble

Assurance Team, Resources and Transformation

Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council,

Civic Centre,

Darwall Street,

Walsall, WS1 1DG

Email: [Walsall Council request email]

Service area: [1]walsall.gov.uk/ Information Governance and Assurance

Website:  [2]www.walsall.gov.uk

[3]http://int.walsall.gov.uk/portals/0/Comm...

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RESPECT CONFIDENTIALITY AND DO NOT SHARE OR FORWARD IT TO ANYONE ELSE
WITHOUT THE EXPRESS CONSENT OF THE AUTHOR. The information in this message
should be regarded as confidential and is intended for the addressee only
unless explicitly stated.  If you have received this message in error it
must be deleted and the sender notified.  The views expressed in this
message are personal and not necessarily those of Walsall MBC unless
explicitly stated.  E-mails sent or received from Walsall MBC may be
intercepted and read by the Council.  Interception will only occur to
ensure compliance with Council policies or procedures or regulatory
obligations, to prevent or detect crime. You should also be aware that any
email may be the subject of a request under Data Protection, Freedom of
Information or Environmental Information legislation and therefore could
be disclosed to third parties.

E-mail Security: Communication by internet email is not secure as
messages can be intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we
strongly advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to
unrelated third parties would be likely to cause harm or distress. If you
have an enquiry of this nature please provide a postal address to allow us
to communicate with you in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by
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References

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Dear Alessandra Berti,

Freedom of Information Request RFI-4957-22

Further to your request for information about Housing Expenditure, I can
tell you the following:

Q. 1. i.) Please state the local authority’s expenditure (including use of
Government grants) on clearing the arrears of tenants in the following
financial years.

a.   2017/2018        725,192.75

b.   2018/2019        830,098.51

c.   2019/2020        742,473.55

d.   2020/2021        874,811.40

e.   2021/2022        905,988.15

ii.) For each of the above years, please provide a breakdown of
expenditure on clearing the arrears of council housing tenants, housing
association tenants and private rental sector tenants.

For question 1(ii) We can confirm that the council holds no Council Stock.

We can also confirm that the Council holds some or all of the information
falling within the description specified in your request.  However,
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”) exempts a
public authority from providing the information where the estimated cost
of compliance with the request exceeds the appropriate limit.  Any
estimate must be made in accordance with the limits set in the Fees
Regulations made under Section 12 (5) of the Act.  These Fees Regulations
(SI2004/3244 Freedom of Information and Data Protection [Appropriate Limit
and Fees] Regulation) allow for a refusal where the cost of compliance,
for local authorities such as the Council would exceed £450 (equivalent to
18 hours of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for
information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs
incurred in:

(a) Determining whether it holds the information,

(b) Locating the information, or a document which may contain the
information,

(c) Retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the
information, and

(d) Extracting the information from a document containing it.

For the purposes of the estimate the costs of performing these activities
should be estimated at a rate of £25 per hour.  To give a breakdown of
Private & RSL would require going through each case  manually which  would
exceed  18 hours .  Disclosure of the information requested in Q1(ii) is
therefore exempt under the provisions of FOIA s12, cost exceeds. 

Q. 2.   i.) Please state the local authority’s expenditure (including use
of Government grants) on discretionary housing payments to assist ongoing
renting costs of tenants in the following years.

         a.  2017/2018        314,499.01

        b.   2018/2019       205,746.60

        c.   2019/2020       114,428.16

        d.   2020/2021       144,710.74

        e.   2021/2022          89,312.56

ii.) For each of the above years, please provide a breakdown of
expenditure on assisting the ongoing renting costs of council housing
tenants, housing association tenants and private rental sector tenants.

For question 2 (ii) We can confirm that the council holds no Council
Stock.

We can also confirm that the Council holds some or all of the information
falling within the description specified in your request.  However,
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”) exempts a
public authority from providing the information where the estimated cost
of compliance with the request exceeds the appropriate limit.  Any
estimate must be made in accordance with the limits set in the Fees
Regulations made under Section 12 (5) of the Act.  These Fees Regulations
(SI2004/3244 Freedom of Information and Data Protection [Appropriate Limit
and Fees] Regulation) allow for a refusal where the cost of compliance,
for local authorities such as the Council would exceed £450 (equivalent to
18 hours of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for
information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs
incurred in:

(a) Determining whether it holds the information,

(b) Locating the information, or a document which may contain the
information,

(c) Retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the
information, and

(d) Extracting the information from a document containing it.

For the purposes of the estimate the costs of performing these activities
should be estimated at a rate of £25 per hour.  To give a breakdown of
Private & RSL would require going through each case  manually which  would
exceed  18 hours .  Disclosure of the information requested in Q2 (ii) is
therefore exempt under the provisions of FOIA s12, cost exceeds. 

Most of the information that we provide in response to Freedom of
Information Act 2000 requests will be subject to copyright protection.  In
most cases the copyright will be owned by Walsall Council. The copyright
in respect of other information may be owned by another person or
organisation, as indicated.

You are free to use any information supplied to you in response to this
request for your own non-commercial research or private study purposes.
The information may also be used for any other purpose allowed by a
limitation or exception in copyright law, such as news reporting.
 However, any other type of re-use, for example by publishing the
information in analogue or digital form, including on the internet, will
require the permission of the copyright owner.

I hope that the information provided is useful to you. However, if you are
dissatisfied, you should set out in writing your grounds for complaint and
send to: Corporate Assurance Manager, Resources & Transformation, Civic
Centre, Darwall Street, Walsall, WS1 1TP.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision.
Please remember that, generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you
have first exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the council. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9
5AF. [1]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Yours sincerely,

Denise Gold

Assurance Team, Resources and Transformation

Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council,

Civic Centre,

Darwall Street,

Walsall, WS1 1DG

Email: [Walsall Council request email]

Service area: [2]walsall.gov.uk/ Information Governance and Assurance

Website:  [3]www.walsall.gov.uk

[4]http://int.walsall.gov.uk/portals/0/Comm...

Disclaimer: IF THIS EMAIL IS MARKED PRIVATE OR CONFIDENTIAL - PLEASE
RESPECT CONFIDENTIALITY AND DO NOT SHARE OR FORWARD IT TO ANYONE ELSE
WITHOUT THE EXPRESS CONSENT OF THE AUTHOR. The information in this message
should be regarded as confidential and is intended for the addressee only
unless explicitly stated.  If you have received this message in error it
must be deleted and the sender notified.  The views expressed in this
message are personal and not necessarily those of Walsall MBC unless
explicitly stated.  E-mails sent or received from Walsall MBC may be
intercepted and read by the Council.  Interception will only occur to
ensure compliance with Council policies or procedures or regulatory
obligations, to prevent or detect crime. You should also be aware that any
email may be the subject of a request under Data Protection, Freedom of
Information or Environmental Information legislation and therefore could
be disclosed to third parties.

E-mail Security: Communication by internet email is not secure as messages
can be intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise
you not to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated third
parties would be likely to cause harm or distress. If you have an enquiry
of this nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate
with you in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by email you must
realise that there can be no guarantee of privacy.

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
2. https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
3. https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlo...