Private sector discharge of homeless duties

Dear Jo Staines,

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000
Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Reference No: 29478741

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Kind regards

FOI Team
Information Security & Governance
Chief Executive’s Directorate
Lewisham Council

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Dear Jo Staines

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000
Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Reference No: 29478741

Thank you for your request for information held by London Borough of Lewisham. Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in responding and for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please find below, a copy of your request and our response.

Request:

Could I please have the following information for the period from 06/11/2023 to 06/03/2025 in relation to private sector discharge of homeless households.

Question 1 - private sector offers to homeless households

For the above period, please provide the following information for *each* mandatory offer of private housing to a homeless household made in discharge of a homeless duty:

The homeless duty in which the offer was made in discharge of (eg. prevention, relief, or main) The local authority area of the offer (eg. Havering) The number of bedrooms of the offer (eg. 1,2,3 etc) The month and year of the offer (eg. Jan-2024, Nov-2024 etc.) Whether the offer was accepted? (Y/N) Whether the council then proceeded to discharge the relevant homeless duty? (Y/N) Whether the offer was later withdrawn by the council? (Y/N)

The information would ideally be provided in an excel table with a column for each of the questions above and a row for each offer made.

Question 2 - policy/guidance documents

Can I please have the guidance your housing officers follow when making these mandatory offers in discharge of homeless duties?

Note: this should include any document that details how to select households for an offer out of all potential households.

Response:

Q1. Please see the spreadsheet attached. This addresses all points raised in the question excepting:
- We do not record acceptances separately from discharge of duty; discharge due to refusal of an offer is logged elsewhere but totals 11 cases in the date range requested.
- We do not withdraw offers

Q2. Please see the policy attached

We hope you will find this information helpful.

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You have a right of appeal against this response which you can exercise by writing to: [email address]

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https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Telephone: 0303 123 1113.

Address: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

FOI Team
Information Security and Governance Team
Chief Executive’s Directorate
Lewisham Council

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