Use of properties in Essex for temporary accommodation

The request was successful.

Dear Lewisham Borough Council,
Please specify the number and type of properties you have used separately in the following boroughs for a) temporary accommodation for homelessness and b) preventative homelessness by financial year in 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018 April to December.

i) Basildon
ii) Braintree
iii) Brentwood
iv) Castle Point
v) Chelmsford
vi) Colchester
vii) Epping Forest
viii) Harlow
ix) Maldon
x) Rochford
xi) Tendring
xii) Uttlesford

Please provide the information by property type, tenure and size as follows (or as close to this as possible depending on how you record the information):

a) Paid nightly (B and B) room with shared facilities
b) Paid nightly hostel (room with shared facilities)
c) room self contained (studio)
d) 1 bed room self contained
e) 2 bed room self contained
f) 3 bed room self contained
g) 4 or more bed room self contained
For each property the tenure type – direct with private landlord, leased by council from private landlord, housing association, own stock, leased through a council scheme with private landlords, leased through a housing association (or registered provider) scheme with private landlord, other (please specify).

Please also provide the post code area (first part of the postcode only is fine) for each of these properties and the number of a) single people housed there in each financial year and b) number of couples without children c) number households with children (along with number of children) for each of these post code areas (or by property used).

Yours faithfully,

Z Bloomfield

Foi, Customer, Lewisham Borough Council

Dear Z Bloomfield,

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Reference No: 1902865

Thank you for your recent request.

Your request is being considered and you will receive a response 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.

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 Lewisham FOI team,
This request has now passed the timescale for an FOI, can you provide a response or update when this will be completed please.

Thanks in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Z Bloomfield

Dear Lewisham Borough Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Lewisham Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Use of properties in Essex for temporary accommodation'.

There has been no response to the request made in December 2018 or to reminders sent.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/u...

Yours faithfully,

Z Bloomfield

Dear Foi,

Reference No: 1902865
Is there an update for this request please? It was made in December and acknowledged, then an e mail reminder was sent followed by a request for a review due to no response having been received. Can you please let me know when the information will be provided.

Yours sincerely,

Z Bloomfield

Foi, Lewisham Borough Council

Dear Z Bloomfield

Thank you for your email and sorry for the delay in responding.

I have made some enquiries and it looks like your request was overlooked on this occasion. We have now picked this up and have prioritised it. We endeavour to issue the response to you within the next 5 working days.

We sincerely apologise for this and any inconvenience this may have caused you. I have noted that you have submitted the same request today. We will not log this as it will be a duplicate.

Kind regards

Wendy Stevens
Senior Customer Resolutions Officer
Corporate Complaints, Casework & Information Governance Team.

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Dear Wendy Stevens,
Thank you for the response. The information has still not been received. Could you please look into this matter and update on when the information will be sent.

Yours sincerely,

Z Bloomfield

Foi, Customer, Lewisham Borough Council

 

Dear Z Bloomfield

 

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Environmental Information Regulations 2004

Reference No: 1902865

 

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. We regret that we are still in the
process of obtaining information relating to Preventative Homelessness for
the financial year 2017/18 and will endeavour to provide this information,
as soon as we can.

 

I have included below a copy of your request, followed by the Council’s
response, under each heading.

 

Please specify the number and type of properties you have used separately
in the following boroughs for a) temporary accommodation for homelessness
and b) preventative homelessness by financial year in 2015/16, 2016/17,
2017/18 and 2018 April to December.

 

i)Basildon

Temporary

2015/16           0

2016/17           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2017/18           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2018                0

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18

2018                0

ii)Braintree

Temporary

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18           0

2018                0

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18          

2018                0

iii)Brentwood

Temporary     

2015/16           0

2016/17           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2017/18           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2018                We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18

2018                0

iv)Castle Point

Temporary

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18           0

2018                0

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18           0

2018                0

v)Chelmsford

Temporary

2015/16           0

2016/17           0         

2017/18           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2018                0

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18          

2018                0

vi)Colchester

Temporary

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18           0

2018                0

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2018                0

vii)Epping Forest

Temporary

2015/16           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2016/17           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2017/18           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2018                We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18

2018                0

viii)Harlow

Temporary

2015/16           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2016/17           We apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

2017/18           22

2018                49

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18

2018                0

ix)Maldon

Temporary

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18           0

2018                0

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18

2018                0

x)Rochford

Temporary

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18           0

2018                0

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18

2018                0

xi)Tendring

Temporary

2015/16           0

2016/17           16

2017/18           17

2018                6

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18

2018                0

xii)Uttlesford

Temporary

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18           0

2018                0

Preventative

2015/16           0

2016/17           0

2017/18

2018                0

 

Please provide the information by property type, tenure and size as
follows (or as close to this as possible depending on how you record the
information):

 

a)Paid nightly (B and B) room with shared facilities

 

Temporary 0

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

b)Paid nightly hostel (room with shared facilities)

 

Temporary 0

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

c)room self contained (studio)

 

Temporary 0

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

d)1 bed room self contained

 

Temporary 0

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

e)2 bed room self contained

 

In regard to Temporary we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

f)3 bed room self contained

 

In regard to Temporary we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

g)4 or more bed room self contained

 

In regard to Temporary we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

For each property the tenure type – direct with private landlord, leased
by council from private landlord, housing association, own stock, leased
through a council scheme with private landlords, leased through a housing
association (or registered provider) scheme with private landlord, other
(please specify).

 

In regard to Temporary we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

However, can confirm

 

2 Bedroom Privately leased

 

Tendering

2016/17           16

2017/18           17

2018                6

 

Harlow

2017/18           22

2018                49

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

Please also provide the post code area (first part of the postcode only is
fine) for each of these properties

 

In regard to Temporary: CO12, CM20, SS14, EN9, CM13, SS15 and CM1

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

and the number of a) single people housed there in each financial year

 

In regard to Temporary we apply Section 12(1) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ‘Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds
appropriate limit’, to your request.

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

and b) number of couples without children

 

 

In regard to Temporary we apply Section 12(1) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ‘Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds
appropriate limit’, to your request.

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

 

c) number households with children (along with number of children) for
each of these post code areas (or by property used).

 

In regard to Temporary we apply Section 12(1) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ‘Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds
appropriate limit’, to your request.

 

In regard to Preventative we apply Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, ’Personal information’, to your request.

Section 12 states:

(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.

(3) In subsections (1) and (2) “the appropriate limit” means such amount
as may be prescribed, and different amounts may be prescribed in relation
to different cases.

(4) The Secretary of State may by regulations provide that, in such
circumstances as may be prescribed, where two or more requests for
information are made to a public authority—

(a) by one person, or

(b) by different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting
in concert or in pursuance of a campaign,

the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to
be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them.

(5) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for the
purposes of this section as to the costs to be estimated and as to the
manner in which they are to be estimated.

 

This acts as a refusal notice. This information is not held in a readily
accessible format. It is estimated that the cost of locating, retrieving
and collating the information would cost in excess of £450 (the set limit)
and therefore exceeds the 'appropriate level' as stated in the Freedom of
Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004
([1]http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2004/uksi_20...).

 

(Costs for staff time i.e. staff retrieving and collating information are
set at £25 per hour and this task would require us to spend more than 18
hours of staff time on preparing the relevant information. You are able to
make a payment so that this task could be undertaken. You may also modify
your request to reduce the cost of this task. Please contact us if you
wish to proceed with one of these options).

 

I have been advised that it would take over 21 hours to review each file,
to provide you with a response to your request.

 

Section 40 states:

 

(1) Any information to which a request for information relates is exempt
information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the
data subject.

(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also
exempt information if-

(a) it constitutes personal data which do not fall within subsection (1),
and

(b) either the first or the second condition below is satisfied.

(3) The first condition is-

(a) in a case where the information falls within any of paragraphs (a) to
(d) of the definition of "data" in section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act
1998, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public
otherwise than under this Act would contravene-

(i) any of the data protection principles, or

(ii) section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing likely to cause
damage or distress), and

(b) in any other case, that the disclosure of the information to a member
of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene any of the
data protection principles if the exemptions in section 33A(1) of the Data
Protection Act 1998 (which relate to manual data held by public
authorities) were disregarded.

(4) The second condition is that by virtue of any provision of Part IV of
the Data Protection Act 1998 the information is exempt from section
7(1)(c) of that Act (data subject's right of access to personal data).

(5) The duty to confirm or deny-

(a) does not arise in relation to information which is (or if it were held
by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue of
subsection (1), and

(b) does not arise in relation to other information if or to the extent
that either-

(i) the giving to a member of the public of the confirmation or denial
that would have to be given to comply with section 1(1)(a) would (apart
from this Act) contravene any of the data protection principles or section
10 of the Data Protection Act 1998 or would do so if the exemptions in
section 33A(1) of that Act were disregarded, or

(ii) by virtue of any provision of Part IV of the Data Protection Act 1998
the information is exempt from section 7(1)(a) of that Act (data subject's
right to be informed whether personal data being processed).

(6) In determining for the purposes of this section whether anything done
before 24th October 2007 would contravene any of the data protection
principles, the exemptions in Part III of Schedule 8 to the Data
Protection Act 1998 shall be disregarded.

(7) In this section-

"the data protection principles" means the principles set out in Part I of
Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998, as read subject to Part II of
that Schedule and section 27(1) of that Act;

"data subject" has the same meaning as in section 1(1) of that Act;

"personal data" has the same meaning as in section 1(1) of that Act.

 

This acts as an exemption notice. We have applied this exemption as
Section 40 (2). It is important to remember that when information is
released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, it is considered
released to the wider public. Any such disclosure of personal information
would not be compliant with the provisions of the Data Protection Act
1998.

 

This is an absolute exemption and therefore does not require the balancing
of the public interests. For further information on personal data please
refer to the following link:

 

[2]https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

 

Some of the responses for your questions are low, therefore there is
possibility of individuals being re-identified meaning the information is
exempt as per the above.

 

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
[3][email address]

 

You have a right of appeal against this response which you can exercise by
writing to: Information Governance – 1st floor Town Hall Chambers,
Catford, London. SE6 4RU. Or at: [4][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:

 

[5]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 & Information Governance Team

London Borough of Lewisham

Address 5th Floor Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, London, SE6 4RU

 

 

 

 

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Dear Lewisham Borough Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Lewisham Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Use of properties in Essex for temporary accommodation'.

It took an extended amount of time to respond to this FOI request and some of the information which is easily and quickly available through filtering existing reports on the case management system has been refused saying it would involve manually going through files. Can this please be done through filtering on reports to provide information on the number of children, households with children, single person households and multiple adult households by district by financial year.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/u...

Yours faithfully,

Z Bloomfield

Foi, Lewisham Borough Council

Dear Z Bloomfield
 
Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000
Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Reference No:1902865 - Appeal
 
Thank you for your email.
 
We acknowledge receipt of your appeal of our response to your information
request, reference number 1902865. We will now undertake a review of our
original response. We will endeavour to respond to you within 20 working
days.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Wendy Stevens
Senior Customer Resolutions Officer
Corporate Complaints, Casework & Information Governance Team.
 

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Stevens, Wendy, Lewisham Borough Council

Dear Z Bloomfield
 
Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000
Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Reference No: 1902865- Appeal Response
 
We have now considered your appeal. We apologise for the delay in
responding. Your request was for information relating to temporary
accommodation. In summary we wish to uphold our application of S12 (1) of
the Freedom of Information Act 2000, ‘Exemption where cost of compliance
exceeds appropriate limit’, to some questions.
 
To carry out the task would involve manually checking 88 cases against 2
different IT systems. We do not hold the reports that you refer to hence
the need to check each case individually. This would take approximately 15
minutes per application which would mean that it would take 22 hours to
collate this information.
 
With regard to information regarding Preventative Homelessness for the
financial year 2017/18 for which we had not received the information at
the time of sending the original response, we can confirm that apart from
Colchester, the figures for other areas during the time period were 0.
 
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]
 
 
We hope you find this response to your review satisfactory. However, you
have a further right of appeal against this decision, which you can do so
in writing, stating your reasons to the regulating body, the Information
Commissioner's Office.
Contact details: [1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/ or 0303 123 1113 or Wycliffe
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Wendy Stevens
Senior Customer Resolutions Officer
Corporate Complaints, Casework & Information Governance Team.
 
_____________________________________________
From: Foi
Sent: 04 June 2019 13:21
To: 'Z Bloomfield'
Cc: Foi
Subject: RE: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Use of
properties in Essex for temporary accommodation FOI-1902865
 
 
Dear Z Bloomfield
 
Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000
Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Reference No:1902865 - Appeal
 
Thank you for your email.
 
We acknowledge receipt of your appeal of our response to your information
request, reference number 1902865. We will now undertake a review of our
original response. We will endeavour to respond to you within 20 working
days.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Wendy Stevens
Senior Customer Resolutions Officer
Corporate Complaints, Casework & Information Governance Team.
 

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