Social housing and Right-to-Buy sales Data Request
Dear Kirklees Borough Council,
My name is Leon Beaufils and I am a third year economics student at the University of Warwick.
As part of a year-long university research project in applied economics, I am studying the evolution of Council's social housing stock. The project is supervised by Thiemo Fetzer, Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick.
I came across the available data on aggregate social housing stock and Right-to-Buy sales at local authority level. However, more detailed information would be of great assistance in answering my research question. Therefore, I hereby submit a Freedom of Information request. I would like access to more detailed data, i.e. at a finer geographical level, on social housing stock and Right-to-Buy sales in the Council area for the period 1980-2021.
Ideally, the data would follow the following format:
Variable of interests: Properties sold under Right-to-Buy and Social/Council housing stock
Geographical unit: As granular as possible (eg. full postcode or full address)
Time unit: As granular as possible (eg. Date)
Period covered: As large as possible between 1980 and present time.
Area covered: As large as possible (eg. all properties managed by the Council at any point in time)
Additional information: discount applied, property valuation, actual sale price, number of bedrooms, or other characteristics.
File format: .xlsx (Excel) or .txt
Thank you for your time in considering my request.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Beaufils,
Economics student at the University of Warwick.
FOI 30747
Dear Leon Beaufils,
I confirm receipt of your information request. We are dealing with this and will respond to you in due course.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 allow up to 20 working days for responding to information requests.
If you are not content with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Requests for internal reviews should be addressed to the Monitoring Officer, Kirklees Council, Governance Service, PO Box 1720, Huddersfield, HD1 9EL. Alternatively, you can send an email to: [email address].
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of any review you have the right under section 50 of the 2000 Act to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision as to whether your request for information has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Act. The Information Commissioner’s website is at www.ico.org.uk and gives more information about the role and duties of the Commissioner. The ICO website is at www.ico.org.uk and gives more information about the role and duties of the Commissioner. The ICO’s telephone helpline is 0303 123 1113; see also Contact us | ICO
Regards,
Information Governance Team
Kirklees Council
Governance Service
PO Box 1720
HUDDERSFIELD
HD1 9EL
Telephone: 01484 221000 (voice activated switchboard – please ask for Freedom of Information)
For more information about how we deal with your personal data, please see the Kirklees Council privacy notice
Dear Mr Beaufils
I am writing in response to your request dated 16 January 2023. This has
been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
You asked for the following information:
I came across the available data on aggregate social housing stock and
Right-to-Buy sales at local authority level. However, more detailed
information would be of great assistance in answering my research
question. Therefore, I hereby submit a Freedom of Information request. I
would like access to more detailed data, i.e. at a finer geographical
level, on social housing stock and Right-to-Buy sales in the Council area
for the period 1980-2021.
Ideally, the data would follow the following format:
Variable of interests: Properties sold under Right-to-Buy and
Social/Council housing stock Geographical unit: As granular as possible
(eg. full postcode or full address) Time unit: As granular as possible
(eg. Date) Period covered: As large as possible between 1980 and present
time.
Area covered: As large as possible (eg. all properties managed by the
Council at any point in time) Additional information: discount applied,
property valuation, actual sale price, number of bedrooms, or other
characteristics.
File format: .xlsx (Excel) or .txt
The Council’s response to your specific questions is set out below:
The Council can confirm that it does hold information falling within the
scope of your request but believes that it would exceed the appropriate
time limit for complying with the request in order to provide it.
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public
authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to
the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004:
12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a
request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of
complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.
(2) Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its
obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the
estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the
appropriate limit.
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to
requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days (or
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.
The Council believes that it would take a considerable amount of time to
extract and collate the information requested; There is a large amount of
data, running into 1000’s of records. This data is held on various systems
and to pull the information together to respond to this request would take
a large amount of time as this would involve a manual process. Taking
into account the likely costs of searching the records and collating the
information, the Council believes that the cost of complying with your
request would far exceed the appropriate limit of £450. The Council is
unable to provide a more detailed cost estimate as it believes that the
cost of doing so would, in itself, exceed the appropriate limit.
The request for disclosure of the information is therefore refused under
section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Under section 1(3) of the Act, a public authority need not comply with a
request unless any further information reasonably required to locate the
information is supplied. If a request is too broad or general in nature,
then public authorities have a duty to provide advice and assistance to
the applicant in order to focus the request. Although the Council cannot
answer your request as it currently stands, it might be able to answer a
refined request within the cost limit. You may wish to consider narrowing
the scope of your request, for example by restricting the time frame or
selecting those items / issues you consider the most important, it might
be possible to comply, subject to the application of any exemptions.
Please do be aware that the Council cannot guarantee at this stage that a
refined request will fall within the appropriate cost limit.
If you are not content with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Requests for internal reviews should
be submitted within 2 months of the date of receipt of the response to
your original request and should be addressed to the Monitoring Officer,
PO Box 1720, Huddersfield, HD1 9EL, you can also send an email to:
[1][email address].
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of any review you have the right
under section 50 of the 2000 Act to apply to the Information Commissioner
for a decision as to whether your request for information has been dealt
with in accordance with the requirements of the Act. The Information
Commissioner’s website is at [2]www.ico.org.uk and gives more information
about the role and duties of the Commissioner. The ICO telephone helpline
on 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745 is available between 9am and 5pm, Monday
to Friday.
Yours sincerely
John Shannon
Kirklees Council, Governance Service
PO Box 1720, Huddersfield, HD1 9EL
Telephone: 01484 221000 (voice activated switchboard – please ask for Data
Protection)
For more information about how we deal with your personal data, please see
the [3]Kirklees Council privacy notice
F
[4][IMG]
[5]Website | [6]News | [7]Email Updates | [8]Facebook | [9]Twitter
This email and any attachments are confidential. If you have received this
email in error – please notify the sender immediately, delete it from your
system, and do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way.
Kirklees Council monitors all emails sent or received.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email%20address]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/informa...
4. http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/
5. https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/
6. http://www.kirkleestogether.co.uk/
7. http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/stayconnected
8. https://www.facebook.com/liveinkirklees
9. https://twitter.com/KirkleesCouncil
Dear Council,
Thank you for your kind reply. I understand that compiling the requested data is too time costly.
To reduce the compiling time, would you be able to provide the following data only:
- All Right To Buy sales with dates at the address or full postcode level from the start of the policy until now (1980-2023).
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Leon Beaufils
Dear Mr Beaufils,
I confirm receipt of your information request and that we are dealing with this and will respond to you in due course.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 allow up to 20 working days for responding to information requests.
If you are not content with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Requests for internal reviews should be addressed to the Monitoring Officer, PO Box 1720, Huddersfield, HD1 9EL. Alternatively, you can send an email to: [email address].
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of any review you have the right under section 50 of the 2000 Act to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision as to whether your request for information has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Act. The Information Commissioner’s website is at www.ico.org.uk and gives more information about the role and duties of the Commissioner. The ICO telephone helpline on 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745 is available between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Regards
James Dunn
Information Governance Assistant
Kirklees Council
Governance Service
PO Box 1720
HUDDERSFIELD
HD1 9EL
For more information about how we deal with your personal data, please see the Kirklees Council privacy notice
Dear
I am writing in response to your request dated 30 January 2023 . This has
been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
You asked for the following information:
All Right To Buy sales with dates at the address or full postcode level
from the start of the policy until now (1980-2023).
The Council’s response to your specific questions is set out below:
Please see attached spreadsheet
If you are not content with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Requests for internal reviews should
be submitted within 2 months of the date of receipt of the response to
your original request and should be addressed to the Monitoring Officer,
1^st Floor, Civic Centre 3, Market Street, Huddersfield HD1 2EY.
Alternatively, you can send an email to: [1][email address].
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of any review you have the right
under section 50 of the 2000 Act to apply to the Information Commissioner
for a decision as to whether your request for information has been dealt
with in accordance with the requirements of the Act. The Information
Commissioner’s website is at [2]www.ico.org.uk and gives more information
about the role and duties of the Commissioner. The ICO telephone helpline
on 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745 is available between 9am and 5pm, Monday
to Friday.
Yours sincerely
John Shannon
Information Governance Team
Kirklees Council, Governance Service
Telephone: 01484 221000 (voice activated switchboard – please ask for
Freedom of Information)
For more information about how we deal with your personal data, please see
the [3]Kirklees Council privacy notice
[4][IMG]
[5]Website | [6]News | [7]Email Updates | [8]Facebook | [9]Twitter
This email and any attachments are confidential. If you have received this
email in error – please notify the sender immediately, delete it from your
system, and do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way.
Kirklees Council monitors all emails sent or received.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email%20address]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/informa...
4. http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/
5. https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/
6. http://www.kirkleestogether.co.uk/
7. http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/stayconnected
8. https://www.facebook.com/liveinkirklees
9. https://twitter.com/KirkleesCouncil
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now