Sutton Borough Council: Housing and Homelessness

The request was successful.

Dear Sutton Borough Council,

I am requesting the following information:

1. How many people are under Council’s Housing waiting list at present ?
Would you please specify the age group, gender and the number of minorities,BME community who are in the council's housing waiting list.

2. Would you please give specify how many people have applied for one bedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom, four bedroom,Five bedroom in year 2012-2013?

3.Please provide number of how many people you have accommodated following the statutory duty under housing act who have been declared themselves as homeless and sissified the homelessness assessment process. Please give number by year starting from January 2012 to December 2013.Please also specify their gender,age group and if possible ethnic identity.

4.Please provide number the people who are in current council waiting list who are homeless.

5.Please share what are the present council policy to address homelessness. And how council is allocating budget for that.

6.Please share the total number of council house and please specify the type of the house and number and area and how many are current empty.

7.Please provide how much council had spent yearly since January 2012 to December 2013,to build new council house/flat.

8.According to the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002) all Local Authorities must have a Homelessness Strategy in place What are the homelessness strategy of the Council council.Please share the yearly the yearly of starting from January 2012 to December 2013.

10. Under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002) Council has certain responsibilities towards people who are homeless or threatened with
homelessness. Would you please provide number, age,gender to whom you provided service following the specific law.

11.How long you take to process housing benefit claim. How many housing benefit claim has been process by the council since January 2012 to December 2013. Please provide number of each year.

12. How much council had spent to pay the employee who are working on homeless issues in council.Please give yearly details starting from January 2012 to December 2013.

13. How many people were successfully prosecuted for housing benefit fraud during year 2012 and 2013.

14.Did council appointed any third party to find out or tackle benefit fraud. If yes, Who is the company and how much council has paid them for the service.

Yours faithfully,

William Gomes

Freedom Of Information, Sutton Borough Council

Dear William Gomes

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST - REF NO – F6063
(please quote in correspondence)

 

I acknowledge your request for information dated 18 January 2014.

 

Your request is being considered and, if it is held, you will receive the
information requested within the statutory timescale of 20 working days as
defined by the Freedom of Information Act 2000, subject to the information
not being exempt or containing a reference to a third party.

 

If appropriate, the information may be provided in paper copy, normal font
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For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions which may
prevent release of the information you have requested. There will be an
assessment and if any of the exemption categories apply then the
information will not be released. You will be informed if this is the
case, including your rights of appeal.

 

If the information you request contains reference to a third party then
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A fee may be payable for this information. This will be considered and you
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Please be advised that in line with London Borough of Sutton’s commitment
to transparency, in due course an anonymous copy of your request and our
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Yours sincerely

 

FOI Admin Officer

London Borough of Sutton

 

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show quoted sections

Claxton Angela, Sutton Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Gomes

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST - REF NO F6063

 

I refer to your request for information received on 18^th January 2014 and
the response to your enquiry is detailed below.

 

1. How many people are under Council’s Housing  waiting list at present 

Would you please specify the age group, gender and  the number of
minorities,BME community who are in the council's housing waiting list.

 

The number of households on the Council’s waiting list as at 29^th January
2014 is 1201 and the breakdown is as follows:-

 

Any Other Mixed Background 8
Asian-Bangladeshi 13
Asian-Indian 7
Asian-Other 39
Asian-Pakistani 10
Black-African 46
Black-Caribbean 20
Black-Other 7
Chinese 1
Mixed-White and Asian 4
Mixed-White and Black African 3
Mixed-White and Black Caribbean 15
Not Available / Not Applicable 18
Not Given 1
Other 24
White-British 897
White-Irish 30
White-Other 57
  1
Total 1201

 

 

Gender

 

Female 789
Male 412
Total 1201

 

 

Age

 

Under 25 70
25 to 60 644
60+ 487
Total 1201

 

 

 

2. Would you please give specify  how many people  have applied for one
bedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom, four bedroom,Five bedroom  in year
2012-2013?

 

1 bedroom = 800

2 bedroom = 576

3 bedroom = 173

4 bedroom = 27

5+ bedroom = 4

 

 

3.Please provide number of how many people you have accommodated following
the statutory duty under housing act who have  been declared themselves as
homeless and sissified the homelessness assessment process. Please give
number by year starting from January 2012 to December 2013.Please also
specify their gender,age group and if possible ethnic identity.

 

1^st January 2012 to 31^st December 2012

 

No. of households accepted as homeless 163
Age Group  
16 – 24 45
25 – 44 90
45 – 59 17
60 – 64 1
65 – 74 8
75 & over 2
Ethnicity     
white 102
Black 33
Asian 18
Mixed 2
Other Ethnic Group 5
Ethnicity not stated 3

 

1st January 2013 to 31^st December 2013

No. of households accepted as homeless 181
Age Group 0
16 – 24 54
25 – 44 106
45 – 59 19
60 – 64 2
65 – 74 0
75 & over 0
Ethnicity  
White 124
Black 13
Asian 18
Mixed 7
Other Ethnic Group 10
Ethnicity not stated 9

 

 

4.Please provide number the people who are in current council waiting list
who are homeless.

 

There are currently 84 households on the housing register who have been
accepted as homeless.

 

5.Please share what are the present council policy to address
homelessness. And how council is allocating budget for that.

 

The Council’s approach to preventing and responding to homelessness is set
out in out Housing Strategy and delivered by a range of initiatives,
departments and services.    The budget to support the development of
preventative initiatives and responses to homelessness are contained
within service budgets and not separately identifiable i.e. with regard to
housing advice, a percentage of staff time is spent on homelessness and
therefore the proportion of the budget associated with this activity is
contained within the total budget for the provision of advice.  If you are
able to be more specific I may be able to provide more detail.

 

 

6.Please share the total number of council house and please specify the
type of the house and number and area and how many are current empty.

 

Please see attached spreadsheet

 

 

7.Please provide how much council had spent yearly since January 2012 to
December 2013,to build new council house/flat.

 

£0

 

8.According to the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Homelessness Act
2002) all Local Authorities must have a Homelessness Strategy in place
What are the homelessness strategy of the Council council.Please share the
yearly the yearly of starting from January 2012 to December 2013.

 

This is contained within the Council’s Housing Strategy.  A copy of the
Council’s Housing Strategy for  2011/12 and Beyond can be accessed via the
following link

 

[1]https://www.sutton.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.a...

 

 

 

10. Under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Homelessness
Act 2002)  Council has certain responsibilities towards people who are
homeless or threatened with

homelessness. Would you please provide number, age,gender to whom you
provided service following the specific law.

 

With reference to homeless applications, I can advise:

 

From 1.4.2012 to 31.3.2013 there were 318 homeless applications

Broken down as follows:-

 

Age

18-24               63

25-54               205

55-64               12

65+                  19

 

Gender – main applicant

Male                108

Female            191

 

and in the first three quarters of 2013/14 there were 269 homeless
applications

broken down as follows:-

 

Age

Under 18        1

18-24               64

25-54               181

55-64               17

65+                  6

 

Gender – main applicant

Male                97

Female            172

 

 

With reference to households threatened with homelessness, we do not hold
the information in the way you require it since we report on outcomes.
However I can advise you that in 2012/13 883 households presented to the
Housing Centre threatened with homelessness and in the first three
quarters of 2013/14 674 households have presented to the Housing Centre
threatened with homelessness.

 

 

11.How long you take to process housing benefit claim. How many housing
benefit claim has been process by the council since January 2012 to
December 2013. Please provide number of each year.

 

The average time taken to assess a new housing benefit claim is 17.5 days
and the average time taken to assess a change in circumstances is 8 days.
The number of housing benefits claims that were processed (new and change
in circs) in 2012 was 84,623 and in 2013 it was 57,932

 

 

12. How much council had spent to pay the employee who are working on
homeless issues in council.Please give yearly details starting from
January 2012 to December 2013.

 

We offer an integrated advice, prevention and homelessness service and
therefore I cannot easily separately identify financial resources
attributed to actively working on homelessness.

 

 

13. How many people were successfully prosecuted for housing benefit fraud
during year 2012 and 2013.

 

2012 - 36

2013 - 24

 

14.Did council appointed any third party to find out or tackle benefit
fraud. If yes, Who is the company and how much council has paid them for
the service.

 

No

 

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We aim to respond to you within 20 working days of receiving your request.
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Should you still be dissatisfied with the outcome you have the right to
refer to the Information Commissioner: Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF [3]www.ico.gov.uk

 

 

Angela Claxton
Housing Centre Officer
London Borough of Sutton
Adult Social Services and Housing
Civic Offices
St Nicholas Way
Sutton
SM1 1EA
Tel: +44(020 8770 5791) Fax:  (020 8770 5665) web site
[4]www.sutton.gov.uk

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