Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council: Housing and Homelessness

The request was successful.

Dear Welwyn Hatfield 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

Ian Colyer, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council

Dear Mr Gomes,

 

Thank you for your request for information received on 20th January 2014.

 

The Council’s policy is to release information unless an exemption can be
reasonably applied. The Council will respond within 20 working days by
either releasing the information or letting you know why it cannot release
the information. If for any reason it is not possible to respond within
the 20 days, we will let you know as soon as possible with the date by
which we anticipate we are able to respond.

 

For your information, the Freedom of Information Act defines a number of
exemptions, which may prevent release of the information you have
requested. There will be an assessment of your request and if any of the
exemption categories apply then the information may not be released. You
will be informed if this is the case, including your rights of appeal
against the refusal to disclose the information.

 

If the information you request concerns a third party then they may be
consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to release the
information to you. You will be informed if this is the case.

 

If you have any queries or concerns then please contact Ian Colyer,
Freedom of Information Officer, Welwyn Hatfield Council, Council Offices,
The Campus, Welwyn Garden City, Herts. AL8 6LA, Tel: 01707 357413, Email:
[1][Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council request email]

 

Further information is also available from the Information Commissioner
at:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700

[2]http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

Ian Colyer,

Freedom of Information Officer

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council

 

 

 

 

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council request email]
2. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/

Ian Colyer, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council

1 Attachment

 

 

From: Ian Colyer
Sent: 27 February 2014 14:51
To: '[email address]'
Subject: Freedom of Information Request - Housing & Homelessness

 

Dear Mr Gomes,

 

Thank you for your request for information received on 20^th January. 
Please accept my apologies for the late response. This is due to the
amount of information that you have requested and the collection and
collation of this information from several sections of the Council. 
Please see the response 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.

 

Applicants on Housing Needs Register by age band

Count of Application ID CBL Application Type
Band HOMESEEKER TRANSFER Grand Total
(a) under 25 580 51 631
(b) 25 to 34 580 220 800
(c) 35 to 44 323 131 454
(d) 45 to 54 273 123 396
(e) 55 to 64 179 111 290
(f) 65 to 74 171 66 237
(g) 75 or over 177 106 283
Grand Total 2283 808 3091

 

Applicants on Housing Needs Register by age band

Count of Application ID CBL Application Type
Gender? HOMESEEKER TRANSFER Grand Total
Female 1153 541 1694
Male 1130 267 1397
Grand Total 2283 808 3091

Applicants on Housing Needs Register by ethnicity

Count of Application ID CBL Application Type
Ethnic Origin HOMESEEKER TRANSFER Grand Total
? UNKNOWN ? 754 103 857
2004 Not declared 14 39 53
As/Brit Bangladeshi 10 1 11
Asian other 14 5 19
Asian/Brit Pakistani 4 4
Asian/British Indian 2 2 4
Black/Brit African 70 18 88
Black/Brit Caribbean 15 7 22
Black/Brit Other 5 1 6
Chinese 5 2 7
Mixed other 1 7 8
Mixed White/Asian 3 3
Mxd Wh/Black African 6 2 8
Mxd Wh/Black Carib 8 6 14
NOT DECLARED 100 8 108
OTHER 17 8 25
Other (Gypsy) 2 2
Other (Irish Traveller) 1 1 2
White any other 119 33 152
White British 1126 557 1683
White Irish 9 6 15
Grand Total 2283 808 3091

 

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?

 

Number of applications received during 2012/13 (Apr ’12 to Mar ’13) shown
by entitled bedroom size and type of applicant

Count of Application ID CBL Application Type
No. of bedrooms entitled to HOMESEEKER TRANSFER Grand Total
1 337 138 475
2 164 109 273
3 76 55 131
4 12 14 26
5 1 1
Grand Total 590 316 906

 

 

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.

 

Under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I can confirm
that this information is available from the Department of Communities &
Local Government website at the following link:

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/statistica...

 

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

 

Number of applicants on waiting list categorised as Homeless as at 14^th
Feb 2014. Shown by application status.

Count of Application
Status
Application Status Total
ACTIVE 19
OFFER ACCEPTED 1
OFFER PENDING 3
PENDING 10
Grand Total 33

 

 

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

 

This information is available on the Council website at the following
link:

 

[2]http://www.welhat.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.as...

 

 

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.

 

Count of Street Name Column Labels    
Row Labels Vacant property Tenanted Grand Total
Bungalow 1bed 5 397 402
Bungalow 2bed 6 739 745
Bungalow 3bed   5 5
Bungalow bedsit   4 4
Flat 1bed 18 1531 1549
Flat 2bed 2 804 806
Flat 3bed 1 45 46
Flat bedsit 11 183 194
House 1bed   16 16
House 2bed 3 1081 1084
House 3bed 14 3824 3838
House 4bed 2 293 295
House 5bed   11 11
House 6bed   4 4
Maisonette 1bed   4 4
Maisonette 2bed   66 66
Maisonette 3bed 2 70 72
Grand Total 64 9077 9141

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

 

The cumulative spend for the two years is £445,200

 

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. Please share the yearly the yearly
of starting from January 2012 to December 2013.

 

This information is available on the Council website at the following
link:

 

[3]http://www.welhat.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.as...

 

 

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.

 

See response to question 3

 

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.

 

Number of claims processed January 2012 to December 2012 – 5404

Number of claims processed January 2013 to December 2013 – 4635

Average Processing Time 2012 – 15.5 days

Average Processing Time 2013 – 12.2 days

 

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.

 

12/13 Budget
Total Hostels Housing Advice Homelessness
HT1210 Total 698,840 215,250 301,058 182,532
All Trust Staff 227,264 383,196 245,537
13/14 Budget
Total Hostels Housing Advice Homelessness
HT1210 Total 658,467 217,260 299,939 141,267
All Trust Staff 228,607 385,081 206,957

 

 

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

 

Fraud Prosecutions resulting in guilty outcomes 2012 – 14

Fraud Prosecutions resulting in guilty outcomes 2013 - 13

 

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

 

I hope this satisfies your request but if you have any queries or concerns
then please contact Ian Colyer, Freedom of Information Officer, Welwyn
Hatfield Council, Council Offices, The Campus, Welwyn Garden City, Herts.
AL8 6LA, Telephone: 01707 357413, Email:[Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council request email] . I attach a
copy of the Freedom of Information complaint procedure.

 

Further information is also available from the Information Commissioner

at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700

[4]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Ian Colyer

Freedom of Information Officer

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council

 

 

 

 

 

Be the first to know if there is any disruption to refuse and recycling
collections this winter. Simply sign up to our text alert service by
texting the word ?snow? followed by your house number or name and your
postcode to 88020. Want to learn more? Visit
www.welhat.gov.uk/servicedisruptions.    

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistica...
2. http://www.welhat.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.as...
3. http://www.welhat.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.as...
4. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/