Terminus House and Templefields House

Dear Jo,

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000
Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Reference No: 7410801

Thank you for your recent request.

Your request is being considered and we usually aim to respond within the statutory timescale of 20 working days, subject to the application of any exemptions. Where consideration is being given to exemptions the 20 working day timescale may be extended to a period considered reasonable depending on the nature and circumstances of your request. In such cases you will be notified and, where possible, a revised time-scale will be indicated. In all cases we shall attempt to deal with your request at the earliest opportunity.

Please be aware that your request may be delayed due to urgent operational responses to dealing with Covid_19 priorities. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, we do remain committed to responding to your request and will respond as soon as we are able.

Should our response to your request breach the statutory time-frame and you remain unhappy with our response you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office and you can contact them at:

• https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
• Telephone: 0303 123 1113
• Address: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of the information requested where the request exceeds the statutory limit or where disbursements exceed £10. In such cases you will be informed in writing and your request will be suspended until we receive payment from you or your request is modified and/or reduced.

Your request may require either full or partial transfer to another public authority. You will be informed if your request is transferred.

If we are unable to provide you with the information requested we will notify you of this together with the reason(s) why and details of how you may appeal (if appropriate).

Please note that the directorate team may contact you for further information where we believe that the request is not significantly clear for us to respond fully.

Kind regards,

Corporate Complaints, Casework and Information Governance Team

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Dear Jo,

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your recent request for information. This is to inform you that we are unable to answer your request based on the details you have provided. To assist us in proceeding with your request, please can you provide us with further information.

Please can you clarify Question 2b of your FOI request below.

2b) Please provide a copy of all reports and documents into this accommodation and the use of it as temporary accommodation?

Please can you narrow the scope of question 2b and specify if there are any particular documents you're seeking.

Please provide clarification within 10 working days. If we do not hear back from you within this time we will assume that the information is no longer required and your request will be closed.

After receiving clarification from you, your request will be acknowledged and considered and you will receive a response within the statutory timescale of 20 working days, subject to the application of any statutory exemptions.

Many thanks and kind regards

Olu Benson
Corporate Complaints, Casework and Information Governance Team

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Your request may be delayed due to urgent operational responses to dealing
with Covid_19 priorities. We apologise for any inconvenience this may
cause, we do remain committed to responding to your request and will
respond as soon as we are able.

Should our response to your request breach the statutory time-frame and
you remain unhappy with our response you have the right to complain to the
Information Commissioners Office and you can contact them at:

[1]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

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

[2][IMG]

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Dear Jo Staines

I have looked into this case on your behalf and despite our best efforts, we have yet to receive a satisfactory response. I have chased this again with urgency and we will endeavour to respond to you as quickly as possible.

We sincerely apologise for the delay and any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Yours sincerely

Corporate Complaints & Casework Team
London Borough of Lewisham
Address: 1st Floor Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, London, SE6 4RU

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Your request may be delayed due to urgent operational responses to dealing
with Covid_19 priorities. We apologise for any inconvenience this may
cause, we do remain committed to responding to your request and will
respond as soon as we are able.

Should our response to your request breach the statutory time-frame and
you remain unhappy with our response you have the right to complain to the
Information Commissioners Office and you can contact them at:

[1]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

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

[2][IMG]

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Thank you for your email. Our service is closed from 25 December 2020 to 4
January 2021.
We will respond to your email in the New Year.

Dear Jo Staines

Thank you for your email. We sincerely apologise that this request is still outstanding. I have chased this up once again and am having a meeting tomorrow morning where this request is on the agenda. We endeavour to respond to you again by the end of this week.

Kind regards

Wendy Stevens
Senior Customer Resolutions Officer
Corporate Complaints & Casework Team
 

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Dear Jo Staines

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000
Environmental Information Regulations 2004 Reference No: 7410801

Thank you for your request for information held by London Borough of Lewisham. Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in providing you with a response to your request.

I have included below a copy of your request, followed by the Council's response.

Q1)

1a) How many units are currently leased by Lewisham Council in these two blocks? (please specify how many units for each number of bedrooms eg. 15 x two bedrooms, 20 x one bedrooms etc.).

Terminus house 24 x 2 beds.
Templefields House 16 x 2 Bed

1b) How many units in answer to 1a) above are currently occupied on 07.10.20?

36 occupied units as of 7.10.20

1c) For answer 1b), how many occupants are housed in this accommodation by Lewisham Council for temporary accommodation under Part VII Housing Act 1996?

33 are under Part VII Housing Act 1996

1d) For the answer in 1b) please confirm for how many of the households is the main homeless applicant/occupier a woman?

29 are female as the main applicant

1e) For the answer in 1b) please confirm how many of the households are single parent households? [note: if this is not recorded, please state instead how many households have only one adult registered]

28 households are single parent households.

1f) For the answer in 1b) please confirm how many households have children and the average number of children?

35 households have children - Average number of children is 1.9

1g) In the last 12 months how many households housed in Terminus House and Templefields House have had their homeless duty discharged by the council offering accommodation in the private sector?

1 client has had their homeless duty discharged

1h) What rents do Lewisham charge for these units? [please specify the rent (or range of rents) for each number of bedrooms, eg. 2 bedrooms £1000-£1100/month]

£185 per week - All units are 2 beds

Q2)

2a) Please provide a copy of the lease agreement between Lewisham and the manager/owner of the properties for units at Terminus House and Templefields House.

Please refer to the attached

2b) Please provide a copy of all reports and documents into this accommodation and the use of it as temporary accommodation?

We apply Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, 'Information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means', to your request.

The information that you have requested, can be accessed via the below link -

https://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/... D - Harlow briefing.pdf

2c) Please provide a copy of all surveys/inspections of Terminus House and Templefields House conducted by the Council. This should also include any inspections conducted before entering the lease agreement.

Information Not held

Accommodation under the Council's leasing scheme, does not have a specific inspection form before the accommodation is taken on. The properties are inspected and the inspecting officer will log down any snagging issues that the landlord will need to address. In the case of Terminus House and Templefields, they were newly refurbished flats that had been done to a high standard and in line with building regulations, therefore there was no snagging points raised with the accommodation provider.

Before the properties were taken on they were inspected and a number of documents relating to health and safety were requested and reviewed. The Council pays the accommodation provider to undertake inspections and therefore the provider would have records of all inspections.

2d) Please provide any guidance/policy documents (whatever the format - could be an email) given to housing officers about which homeless households to place in Terminus House and Templefields House?

Information Not held

However, please refer to the attached Location Priority Policy document, which sets out the criteria for households placed over 90 minutes away.

Section 21 states:
(1) Information which is readily available to the applicant otherwise than under section 1 is exempt information.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)-
(a) information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessible only on payment, and
(b) information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or upon payment.
(3) For the purposes of subsection (1), information which is held by a public authority and does not fall within subsection (2)(b) is not to be regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant merely because the information is available from the public authority itself on request, unless the information is made available in accordance with the authority's publication scheme and any payment required is specified in, or determined in accordance with, the scheme.

This acts as an exemption notice. Subsection 1 means that the Council is relieved of the duty to communicate the requested information to an applicant if there is an existing method by which the information can be obtained, outside of the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is an absolute exemption and therefore does not require the public interests balancing test to be applied.

We hope you will find this information helpful.

You are free to use the information provided for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, requires the permission of the copyright holder. You may apply for permission to re-use this information by submitting a request to [email address]

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

This must be requested within 40 working days of the date of this response.

If you remain dissatisfied after receiving this decision, you then also have a further right of appeal, which you can make in writing, stating your reasons to the regulating body, the Information Commissioner's Office. Contact details are outlined below:

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113.

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

Yours sincerely

Corporate Complaints & Casework Team
London Borough of Lewisham
Address: 1st Floor Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, London, SE6 4RU

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