Wandsworth Borough Council: Housing and Homelessness

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Dear Wandsworth 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, Wandsworth Borough Council

Dear Mr Gomes

Freedom of Information Act request - 2014/8839 - WBC - Housing and
Homelessness

Thank you for your request for information received on 20/01/2014.

This will be processed in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

Regards

Corporate Information Management Team
[1][Wandsworth Council request email]

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Freedom Of Information, Wandsworth Borough Council

7 Attachments

Freedom of Information Act request - 2014/8839 - WBC - Housing and
Homelessness

 

I refer to your request for information received on 20/01/2014.  Please
see the information below in response to your request: -

 

1.       How many people are on the Council’s Housing waiting list at
present ?

As at 17^th Feb 2014 there were 3680 people.

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

Breakdown of those on the Councils Housing Access Queues by age group,
Gender of lead applicant and Ethnicity Grouping of lead applicant:

       

[1]Description: [2]Description: [3]Description:
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AGE GROUP GENDER OF MAIN APPLICANT ETHNIC GROUPING OF THE LEAD  
APPLICANT

 

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

Housing applications across all queues made per year divided into bedroom
size needed. [4]Description: cid:image004.png@01CF2BE6.F4B4B630

 

3.       Please provide number of how many people you have accommodated
following the statutory duty under the Housing Act who have 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.

       

[5]Description: [6]Description: [7]Description:
cid:image005.png@01CF2BE6.F4B4B630 cid:image006.png@01CF2BE7.1F073700 cid:image007.png@01CF2BE8.6AD56250
AGE GROUP GENDER OF MAIN APPLICANT ETHNIC GROUPING OF THE LEAD  
APPLICANT

 

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

There are currently 3680 on the waiting list and 484 of those applicants
are homeless.

 

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

The Council’s assistance to the homeless is governed by statute, clarified
by the Department for Communities and Local Government’s statutory code of
guidance on homelessness and in various non-statutory “good practice”
publications, and is further clarified by a large body of case law. 

Under Section 21 a public authority does not need to provide information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 if that information is
reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means.  In order to assist
in this matter, the latest report on how the Council is performing those
duties is in the public domain via Paper No 13- 373 (HOSC 19/6/2013) which
can be accessed via the following link:-

[8]http://ww3.wandsworth.gov.uk/moderngov/i...

 

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

Total number of properties: as at 24^th January 2014 there were 17,042
tenanted properties of which 151 were void on that date.  Below is the
breakdown of the 16,891 properties.

 

Type Ward No.
Bungalow Bedford 8
Earlsfield 1
East Putney 1
Furzedown 1
Latchmere 7
Roehampton 69
Shaftesbury 1
Southfields 4
Tooting 12
West Hill 7
West Putney 4
115
Flat Bedford 105
Balham 212
Earlsfield 400
East Putney 334
Furzedown 260
Fairfield 297
Graveney 76
Latchmere 2374
Northcote 66
Nightingale 108
Queenstown 1246
Roehampton 1409
Shaftsbury 264
Southfields 404
St Marys Park 893
Thamesfield 253
Tooting 371
Wandsworth Common 212
West Hill 1071
West Putney 944
11299
House Bedford 66
Balham 61
Earlsfield 184
East Putney 70
Furzdown 156
Fairfield 35
Graveney 468
Latchmere 144
Northcote 55
Nightingale 42
Queenstown 38
Roehampton 103
Shaftsbury 107
Southfields 109
St Marys Park 10
Thamesfield 31
Tooting 257
Wandsworth Common 22
West Hill 181
West Putney 272
2411
Masionette Bedford 39
Balham 5
Earlsfield 10
East Putney 132
Furzedown 28
Fairfield 45
Latchmere 443
Northcote 21
Nightingale 6
Queenstown 462
Roehampton 905
Shaftsbury 39
Southfields 161
St Marys Park 376
Thamesfield 27
Tooting 91
Wandsworth Common 21
West Hill 177
West Putney 78
3066
Grand total 16891

 

7.       Please provide how much the council had spent yearly since
January 2012 to December 2013 to build new council houses/flats.

Costs are held in Financial Years:

2011/12    £5,329,000

2012/13    £3,431,000

2013/14    £1,690,000

 

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 is the homelessness strategy of the Council?  Please share
the yearly starting from January 2012 to December 2013.

See answer to 5 above and the same report.

 

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

Total cases = 1363 (2013)

Total cases = 1445 (2012)

 

  2012 2013
Ethnic Origin Total Total
Asian/British (Bangladeshi) 10 4
Asian/British (Indian) 16 13
Asian/British (Other) 89 70
Asian/British (Pakistani) 147 163
Arab 8 4
Black/British (Other) 52 50
Black/British (Caribbean) 179 144
Black/British (African) 253 240
Black (UK) 11 7
Chinese 2 3
Mixed (White & Black Caribbean) 48 86
Mixed (Other) 14 14
Mixed (White & Black African) 4 2
Mixed (White & Asian) 3 3
Other Groups 42 49
Not Asked - Refused to Disclose 61 51
Gypsy/Romany/Irish Traveller 0 1
White British 357 288
White Irish 9 6
White Other 140 138
  1445 1336

 

Age Groups (Using P1E Criteria)
16-24 25-44 45-59 60-64 65-74 75+ Total
2012 281 837 271 23 27 6 1445
2013 222 855 203 23 25 8 1336

 

Gender 2012 2013 Totals
Male 456 989 1445
Female 410 926 1336

 

10.   How long do you take to process housing benefit claims? 

The average Speed of Processing (SoP) for period 1st April 2013 to 31st
December 2013 for new Housing Benefit claims was 23.5 days.

How many housing benefit claims have been processed by the council since
January 2012 to December 2013.  Please provide the number for each year.

There were 3,620 new Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claims
processed between 1st January 2012 and 31st March 2012 (figures are not
available for just HB claims) There were 14,500 new Housing Benefit and
Council Tax Benefit claims processed between 1st April 2012 and 31st March
2013 (figures are not available for just HB claims) There have been 5,022
new Housing Benefit claims processed between 1st April 2013 and 31st
December 2013. (figures now broken down into just HB cases)

 

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

2012 - £1.145 million

2013 - £1.031 million

 

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

35 people for 01/01/2012 to 31/12/2012

20 people for 01/01/2013 to 31/12/2013

 

13.   Did the council appoint any third party to find out or tackle
benefit fraud?  If yes, who is the company and how much has council has
paid them for the service.

No third party contracts were appointed to tackle benefit fraud.

 

I hope this information meets your needs. If you do not understand the
information provided or wish to discuss anything further, please feel free
to contact me and I, or another member of the team, will be able to assist
you.

 

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Regards

Sue Murray

Corporate Information Management Team

[9][Wandsworth Council request email]

 

 

 

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