Life Cycle Carbon Assessments of homes
Dear Lambeth Borough Council,
A motion entitled 'A homes policy that complies with the new Lambeth Local Plan 2020-2035' that was passed at the full council meeting on 24th November 2021 included a Labour Party amendment that included the following sentence:
'To recognise that thanks to Life Cycle Carbon Assessments new build homes can be demonstrated to deliver better long-term carbon impacts than retrofitted homes...’
1) Please provide a copy of the above mentioned Assessments.
2) Please provide details of the energy standards of both the new build homes and the retrofitted homes referred to in these Assessments.
3) If not already included in these Assessments, please indicate their author/s.
4) What number of years does the phrase ‘long-term’ represent in the above quoted sentence?
5) Please include any calculations or formulae that were used to obtain the conclusion reached in the above quoted sentence.
6) If the Assessments were never actually in the possession of the council but only referred to in a link or URL, please provide a copy of the document containing that link or URL, whether that document was held, sent or received by an officer or member of the council.
To clarify item 6 above, if the Assessments in question were not made by officers of the council but by a third party, whether an individual or organisation, they would nevertheless have had to have been in the possession of the council at some point in order to have ended up being referred to in the above motion. For instance they could have been received by a member or officer by post, or electronically in the form of an attachment to an email, or simply linked to in a URL in a council document or member’s email or officer’s email.
Yours faithfully,
Peter Lennard
Information request
Our reference: IRN7494069
Your reference: [FOI #813121 email]
Dear Lambeth Council,
I hope you have had a pleasant Christmas and a peaceful New Year and have avoided catching you-know-what!
I trust that having been invigorated by the Christmas break and having recovered from New Year celebrations you will soon be able to track down who in the council is in a position to answer my FoI request.
Perhaps you did that long ago. If so please would you remind the responsible person that the response is now overdue as it should have been answered by 31st December.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Lennard
Information request
Our reference: IRN7494069
Your reference: [FOI #813121 email]
Dear Lambeth Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Lambeth Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Life Cycle Carbon Assessments of homes'.
It is not clear whether my Freedom of Information request has been carefully read and understood. I requested either a copy of certain Lifetime Carbon Assessments (scientific studies), or a link to those Assessments.
The council response was that the information requested IS held by the council, yet the response did not include the studies (Assessments) requested, with no valid reason under the Regulations being given for their non-provision.
As I explained, either a copy of those Assessments (the scientific studies) must be held either directly by the council, whether by an Officer of the council or by an elected Member of the council, or indirectly in the form of a link to those Assessments.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...
Yours faithfully,
Peter Lennard
Information request
Our reference: IRN7494069
Your reference: [FOI #813121 email]
Dear Lambeth Council,
An internal review of my Freedom of Information request was due by 1st February 2022 but I have not yet received a response. I look forward to receiving the results of the internal review, hopefully with the information originally requested. Please ensure that my original request has been fully understood as I believe the initial response indicated that it had been misunderstood.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Lennard
Dear Lambeth Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I was promised a response to my request for an internal review of Lambeth Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Life Cycle Carbon Assessments of homes' by 1st February 2022. To date I have received neither a response nor a reason for the delay.
The Freedom of Information Code of Practice, Section 5.5 states:
"5.5 If an internal review is complex, requires consultation with third parties or the relevant information is of a high volume, public authorities may need longer than 20 working days to consider the issues and respond. In these instances, the public authority should inform the applicant and provide a reasonable target date by which they will be able to respond to the internal review. It is best practice for this to be no more than an additional 20 working days, although there will sometimes be legitimate reasons why a longer extension is needed."
Please could you supply me with either a response to my request for an internal review or an explanation for the delay along with a reasonable target date by which you will be able to respond.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...
Yours faithfully,
Peter Lennard
Information request
Our reference: IRN7494069
Your reference: [FOI #813121 email]
Peter Lennard left an annotation ()
This FoI request has progressed to a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office about the way it has been handled.
Dear Lambeth Borough Council,
At the council’s Cabinet meeting on 21st March 2022 an officer, who I believe was Rob Bristow, Director, Planning, Transport and Sustainability stated “we have whole Life Cycle Carbon Assessments.” His contribution started 1.01.30 in from the beginning of the meeting. Later in the meeting at 1.33.30 from the beginning Councillor Matthew Bennett stated: “We are using Life Cycle Carbon Assessments.” In the light of the fact that both one departmental director and one senior councillor have stated publicly that the council does have the very Life Cycle Carbon Assessments that my FoI request was asking about, would you like to reconsider the FoI department’s assertion that the council does not have the information that I requested? The cabinet meeting in question can be viewed for 180 days from the date of the meeting at https://bit.ly/3HZmcDy
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...
Yours faithfully,
Peter Lennard
Peter Lennard left an annotation ()
On 28th March 2022 the Information Commissioner's Office response to my complaint included: "...your complaint has been accepted as eligible for investigation. We will allocate it to a case officer as soon as we can.
Most cases will be allocated in around nine months from the date of receipt. We are working hard to reduce this waiting time and appreciate your patience in the meantime."
Information request
Our reference: IRN7494069
Your reference: [FOI #813121 email]
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Dear Mr Lennard
Please see attached letter for information.
Yours sincerely
Complaints & Information Officer
Internal review team
London Borough of Lambeth
E-mail [email address]
Website: [1]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Corporate Complaints Unit
Residents Services
London Borough of Lambeth
P.O. Box 734
Winchester S023 5DG
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Information request
Our reference: IRN7494069
Your reference: [FOI #813121 email]
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Dear Mr Lennard
Please see attached letter.
Yours sincerely
Leah Nairne
Complaints & Information Officer
Internal review team
London Borough of Lambeth
E-mail: [1][email address]
Website: [2]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Corporate Complaints Unit
Residents Services
London Borough of Lambeth
P.O. Box 734
Winchester S023 5DG
Lambeth - a Co-operative Council
All Lambeth emails and attachments are private and intended solely for the
use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Unauthorised
use (disclosure, storage or copying) is not permitted. If you are not the
intended recipient please destroy all copies and inform the sender by
return email.
All Lambeth emails and attachments are confidential and intended solely
for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Some
emails may contain information that is legally-privileged or copyright
protected. Any views or opinions expressed in emails are solely those of
the author and do not necessarily represent those of Lambeth Council.
Unauthorised use (disclosure, storage or copying) of emails is not
permitted. If you are not the intended recipient please destroy all copies
and inform the sender by return email. Please note however, that
unencrypted emails sent to the council can be intercepted by an
unauthorised third party; as the information contained within is not
protected.
Lambeth Council reserves the right to monitor, record and retain any
incoming and outgoing emails for security reasons and for monitoring
internal compliance with the Council's policy on staff use. Although
software may be used to check, monitor and/or block the contents of emails
and attachments to identify the presence of malware; you are advised that
you open any attachments at your own risk.
As a public body, the Council may be required to disclose this email (or
any response to it) under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 unless the
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our [3]Privacy Notice.
Disclaimers apply - full details at [4]www.lambeth.gov.uk/email-disclaimer
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Dear Lambeth Council,
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) issued a Decision Notice in relation to this FoI request on 22nd February 2023.
https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...
The Decision Notice includes the following ruling:
The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation.
• Disclose the information at part 2 of the request.
In my view the council response dated 01/03/2023 to the decision notice does not comply with the above ruling for the following reasons:
1) On 10/03/2022 Lambeth Council explained that the WLCCEAs referred to in the council motion of 24/11/2021 were three unfinished WLCCEAs. They confirmed this nine months later, on 22/12/2022, which was when they relied on the WLCCEAs’ incomplete state to claim them to be exempt from publication under the EIR regulations, an exemption that both the ICO and myself accepted. Further to my expression of concern to the ICO on 10/01/23 that the claimed three unfinished WLCCEAs might not actually exist the ICO advised me on 12/01/2023 that they had been provided with copies of these draft documents and this confirmation was also included in the Decision Notice, dated 22/02/2023 (paragraph 9). So the existence of these three draft WLCCEAs cannot credibly be disputed and the council response to the decision notice should be in relation to these WLCCEAs, not least because my original FoI request specifically concerned the WLCCEAs referred to in the council motion of 24/11/2021 and as it was these three draft WLCCEAs that the council motion had referred to, not the old Denby Court WLCCEA, then any subsequent council response should relate to those WLCCEAs.
2) The Council, in its response dated 01/03/2023 to the Decision Notice appears to be attempting to deny the existence of those three draft WLCCEAs. Instead it refers to an old WLCCEA produced for Denby Court, published in September 2021. I had already found this WLCCEA prior to the council meeting of 24/11/2021, and my familiarity with it told me that there was nothing in it that supported the council claim in the motion put to that meeting. Simply put, it didn’t include any WLCCEA for a refurbishment scenario for the existing buildings on the Denby Court site, a fact confirmed in the council response dated 21/02/2023 to my later FoI request IRN15431362, so by nature of its content could not have been one of the WLCCEAs referred to in the council motion of 24/11/2021.
3) My understanding of the legal interpretation of the words ‘future’, ‘unfinished’ and ‘draft’ in the context of an FoI request means that these three documents will have had to be unfinished at the time of my original FoI request, namely 01/12/2021, so when they are eventually made public, or if by now one or more have been completed, their publication date cannot predate 01/12/2021, otherwise their exemption from publication under Regulation 12(4)(d) of the EIR regulations would have been obtained fraudulently. As the Denby Court WLCCEA was published in September 2021, three months prior to my original FoI request, it would not have qualified for exemption under the EIR regulations.
4) Further to an FoI request for information about a particular energy standard or standards the response should be in the format of any commonly recognised energy standard or standards, such as for new build it could be ’35% better than Part L’ or ‘Passivhaus Basic’ or a maximum space heating demand such as ‘20kWh/m2/year’ while for retrofit it could be ‘Passivhaus EnerPHit’ or ‘AECB Retrofit Standard Level 2’ or a maximum space heating demand such as ‘30kWh/m2/year’.
The only logical conclusion that I can draw from all this is that the claim made in the motion put to the full council meeting of 24th November 2021, namely 'To recognise that thanks to Life Cycle Carbon Assessments new build homes can be demonstrated to deliver better long-term carbon impacts than retrofitted homes...’ was in fact false as in the 15 months since that date, despite being given ample opportunity, the council has failed to provide any evidence to support it.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Lennard
Dear Mr Lennard,
Please find the attached WLCCA reports for Fenwick Place and Westbury. I
offer sincere apologies on behalf of the Council for the delay in
providing these to you, and for any inconvenience this delay may have
caused.
Yours sincerely,
Leah Nairne
(Preferred pronouns: She/Her)
Complaints and Information Officer
Corporate Complaints Unit
Residents Experience and Digital
London Borough of Lambeth
Website: [1]www.lambeth.gov.uk
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Peter Lennard left an annotation ()
Further to my complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) that the council had submitted old WLCCEAs, ones completed before I made this FoI request and which therefore should not qualify for exemption from publication under the EIR Regulations by nature of being incomplete, I received the following response from the ICO on 24/4/23:
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Thank you for your email of 23 April 2023.
The 3 WLCCEAs which the Council provided to you on 1 March 2023 and 30 March 2023 are the correct WLCCEAs which were held by the Council at the time of your request, and therefore falling within the scope of your request.
The Commissioner's role when he receives a complaint such as yours is to determine whether or not the public authority holds information which falls within the scope of your request, and if that information should be disclosed in response to the request or not. It is not within the Commissioner's remit to prove or disprove statements made by the Council. If you have concerns regarding the validity of statements made by the Council regarding the WLCCEAs you should raise it directly with the Council via its internal complaints procedure, or alternatively you could try contacting the Local Government Ombudsman.
Following the Decision Notice being served on 22 February 2023, and the Council then disclosing the WLCCEAs to you, it has come to light that the versions of the WLCCEAs which were provided to me by the Council during my investigation into your complaint were not the same as the final versions which have now been provided to you. The WLCCEAs made available to you are the correct final versions, but the versions which were made available to me to consider were earlier out-of-date draft versions. For context, the Denby Court WLCCEA provided to me during the investigation was a draft from March 2021, and when drawing my conclusions and making the decision on your complaint I was not aware that there had been any more current versions produced at that point.
We are in contact with the Council to understand why and how this happened, but it follows therefore that my advice to you regarding the Council's application of regulation 12(4)(d) was in fact incorrect, along with the findings in the Decision Notice which stated that regulation 12(4)(d) was engaged, as it was based on the out-of-date information erroneously provided to me by the Council.
The Commissioner is unable to just withdraw a Decision Notice once it has been served, however if you wish for it to be on record that some of the details within the notice are incorrect you can still submit an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) and request that it is accepted outside of the usual 28 days due to the circumstances surrounding the case. Obviously the Commissioner will not put forward counter arguments, as we wholly accept that not all of the details within the notice are factually correct. However, now that the 3 WLCCEAs have been disclosed to you, any appeal will obviously not result in any further information being disclosed to you, but it will be an acknowledgment of where the decision was incorrect.
I hope this information is helpful, and please accept my apologies that bringing this complaint to a conclusion has not been as straightforward as we would have liked it to be.
=========================================================
There are two conclusions that can be drawn in view of the above response from the ICO.
1) The council misled the ICO, myself and the general public, into accepting a long delay by convincing us that there were as yet unpublished WLCCEAs that would back up the claim made in the motion to full council on 24/11/2021, when in fact that was not the case. The wording of the claim in the council motion was as follows::
'To recognise that thanks to Life Cycle Carbon Assessments new build homes can be demonstrated to deliver better long-term carbon impacts than retrofitted homes...’
By falsely claiming to the ICO that the three draft WLCCEAs they submitted to the ICO were still incomplete and were therefore exempt from publication under regulation 12(4)(d) of the Environmental Information Regulations they were able to engender a long delay.
2) These three WLCCEAs turn out to be the only WLCCEAs that the council has been able to put forward in support of the claim made in the November 2021 motion. Examination of them soon shows that they don't include any comparison with the retrofitting of existing homes; they merely contain a WLCCEA for each new build project, therefore the claim made in the motion of 24/11/21 has been shown to have been false, which could well have influenced councillors to support the motion when they might otherwise not have done. They were misled into believing that the council had evidence that council estate demolition is a more environmentally beneficial strategy than retrofitting the homes to equally high energy standards, when in fact the council has no such evidence.
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Peter Lennard left an annotation ()
The original motion entitled 'A homes policy that complies with the new Lambeth Local Plan 2020-2035' was rejected by the full Lambeth council meeting on 24 November 2021 and instead the version as amended was passed. The amended version that was passed is on pages 27 to 30 of the Public Reports Pack. This Freedom of Information request concerns one particular sentence of the motion as passed, which can be found on page 30 of the Public Reports Pack, which can be downloaded from the Lambeth Council website:
https://tinyurl.com/yckmy24n
which is the abbreviation of the following URL:
https://moderngov.lambeth.gov.uk/documen...