Vacant industrial premises

Dear Ms O'Carroll,

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Information Request -1095/10

We acknowledge receipt of your information request received on 03/
December 2010 which is being processed according to the Freedom of
Information Act (2000).

The legislation allows us 20 working days to respond which takes us to 05
January 2011.  There are some circumstances under which this deadline may
be extended legally but we will inform you as soon as we know if these
apply.

In the interests of efficiency and the environment the Council may decide
to send you an electronic (e-mail or disk) copy of the information you
have requested rather than print it onto paper.  Please contact us to
discuss alternatives if this will not be suitable for you.

Questions

I would be grateful if you could provide a list of all industrial
properties (not just properties owned by the council) across the city
which are currently classed as vacant for rating purposes, with an RV
greater than £2600.

Where possible, please also provide details of ownership of said
properties.

Should you wish to complain about our response in any way, then this must
initially be done through the Council's internal review procedure. 
Please contact the Corporate Feedback Team: Freepost RSCR-LAZG-RBHX, Hull
City Council, Customer Feedback Team.  P.O. Box 15, Hull, HU1 2AB. 
Telephone (01482) 300300, Textphone (01482) 300349. E-Mail
[1][email address].

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review then you
may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office, the
government body established to enforce the legislation.  Their details
are Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone
01625 545 700, Email: [2][email address], web site
[3]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

The Council's Freedom of Information Policy, which includes the charging
policy, is available on request and from the web site
[4]www.hullcc.gov.uk.  Also available is a booklet on `Accessing
Information from Hull City Council' which explains how to request
information and your rights (according to the Data Protection Act 1998 and
The Freedom of Information Act 2000).

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance Team

Information Governance Team, Customer Services, Hull City Council, Ground Floor,
City Treasury, Guildhall Road, Hull, HU1 2AB

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Freedom of Information no.1095/10

Dear Ms O'Carroll,

With regard to your information request please find some of the
information within the enclosed file.

"I would be grateful if you could provide a list of all industrial
properties (not just properties owned by the council) across the city
which are currently classed as vacant for rating purposes, with an RV
greater than £2600.

Where possible, please also provide details of ownership of said
properties."

Unfortunately we are unable to provide the ownership details for the
properties in question. The Council is not required to provide
information where to do so would exceed a £450 cost ceiling, which
equates to 18 hours of staff time. Our data systems are unable to match
ownership with specific properties and RV's and export the details into a
report. It would therefore be necessary to manually interrogate our
Business Rates system and match the details onto the enclosed sheet. We
have estimated that such an exercise would require a minimum of 30 hours
of staff time.

We are able to provide billing address details for a small number of the
properties as we have recently completed a similar FOI request for
properties with a Rateable Value of +£100k. This information is enclosed
within the second file and is the same data that is listed on rows
1123-1145 of the first file. Given the very small number of properties
it was possible to manually match this data within the time/cost limits
under the Act.

<<RV +£2600 no billing address.XLS>>

<<RV +£100K WITH BILLING ADDRESS 15DEC.XLS>>

We hope that you will be satisfied with our response, should you require
any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance Team

Citizen Engagement

Hull City Council

(01482) 300300

We are required to advise you that if you wish to complain about our
response in any way, then this should initially be done through the
Council's internal complaints procedure. Please contact Lynne Bird, Legal
Services, The Guildhall, Hull HU1 2AA to register your complaint. If you
are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal complaints procedure
then you may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office,
the government body established to enforce the legislation. Their details
are Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone
01625 545 700, Email: [1][email address], web site
[2]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.

The Council's Freedom of Information Policy, which includes the charging
policy, is available on request and from the web site
[3]www.hullcc.gov.uk. Also available is a booklet on `Accessing
Information from Hull City Council' which explains how to request
information and your rights (according to the Data Protection Act 1998 and
The Freedom of Information Act 2000).

Please note that this information is subject to copyright and supply of
the information to you under the Freedom of Information Act does not
confer an automatic right to re-use it in a way that would infringe
copyright. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any
non-commercial research or private study you are carrying out and for
purposes of news reporting.

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