FOI request (FOIR-137545661)

This request is heavily dependent on the information that councils hold, which varies between councils. There is no expectation that the council should dig through individual files etc to find any of the requested data. This is particularly relevant with regard to questions 14-16 and 23-24.

Please provide responses to all questions except 3, 17, and 23-25 in the attached spreadsheet. Please provide the response to question 3 in a separate Excel spreadsheet (not pdf).

Homelessness temporary accommodation placements

These questions cover temporary housing, bed and breakfast etc - whichever form of housing is used to temporarily accommodate people. Please note these questions refer to current placements (or the most recent date for which data is available), not expired placements - "placed" has a present tense rather than a past tense in these questions.

1. How many households does the council currently have placed in temporary accommodation (including council housing and non-council housing, and any location inside or outside the council area)?

2. Of the households listed in response to question 1, please state how many are being housed outside the local authority area

3. Please list all the local authority areas where the council currently has placed any of households  (as referred to in response to question 1) in temporary accommodation, and how many households are currently placed in each local authority area

4. Of the households listed in response to question 2, please state how many households have been temporarily placed there for more than 12 months. If the data for question 4 cannot be located within the section 12 cost limit, please exclude this question and process the remainder of the request.

If the council can only provide data for questions 1-4 for individuals rather than households, please do so, specifying that this is the case.

5. Of the households your council currently has temporarily housed within your local authority area (as opposed to housed in other local authority areas), what is the average monthly rent charged for a two-bedroom property?

6. What is the average monthly rent charged for a two-bedroom property under a normal social housing tenancy in your local authority area? If data is only available for council housing/ALMOs, please use that. If the council does not have its own housing stock and has no information on local social housing rents, please respond with 'data not held' for this question.

Temporary accommodation expenditure

Please note that questions 7-9 are for gross expenditure, and questions 10-12 are for expenditure net of housing benefit. If the information is only held in one form, please respond to those questions and reply 'information not held' for the others.

Please also note that if the council simply refers me to budget documents and outturn statements, there is a significant chance that these will be misinterpreted and misread, given that I am not an accountant.

7. Please state the council's initial gross full-year temporary accommodation budget for 2019/20

8. Please state the council's currently forecast (via revenue monitoring etc) gross full-year spending on temporary accommodation for 2019/20.

9. Please state the gross full-year temporary accommodation expenditure for 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively

10. Please state the council's initial net full-year temporary accommodation budget for 2019/20

11. Please state the council's currently forecast (via revenue monitoring etc) net full-year spending on temporary accommodation for 2019/20.

12. Please state the net full-year temporary accommodation expenditure for 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively

Where the council is the product of a recent merger, whether the council responds for all years for questions 9 and 12 depends on whether the prior councils' data is still accessible.

Homelessness prevention duty

13. How many households did the council accept a homelessness prevention duty towards during 2018/19?

14. Of the figure in question 13, how many households were in receipt of Housing Benefit?

15. Of the figure in question 13, how many households were in receipt of Universal Credit?

If the information for questions 14 and 15 cannot be sourced without examining individual files, please state 'information not held' for these questions, and also state whether such information is available for current cases (i.e. 2019/20).

16. Does the council have any record of whether the households in question 13 were in work (i.e. had at least one member in paid work)? If so, please provide this data. If not, please state 'information not held'

Where the council is the product of a recent merger, whether the council responds for all years for questions 13-16 depends on whether the prior councils' data is still accessible.  

Council housing repairs

17. Does the council have its own council housing/ALMO housing stock? If not, please ignore questions 18-24 and proceed to question 25.

18. How many council housing tenant households are currently awaiting repair work on their council homes, as logged with the council?

19. Of the figure in question 18, how many are logged as emergency repairs?

20. Of the figure in question 18, how many households have been waiting more than 28 days/a month (including those covered by questions 21 and 22)?

21. Of the figure in question 18, how many households have been waiting more than six months (including those covered by question 22)?

22. Of the figure in question 18, how many households have been waiting more than a year?

23. Please list the required repairs for the households covered by question 21.

24. Please list the required repairs for the households covered by question 22.

If the information for questions  23 and 24 cannot be provided within the section 12 cost limit, please exclude these and provide responses to the remainder of this request.

Affordable housing

25. Under the FOI Duty to Assist, does the council have any data or information on rent levels or sale prices charged for 'affordable housing' in the local area? I am not asking for disclosure of this information at this stage - I simply want to know whether or not the council holds relevant classes of information.

I would like the information sent by email - note the attached spreadsheet. Please let me know if you have any questions or require any clarifications. This request is focused on housing issues, and should not be aggregated with any unrelated request for section 12 purposes.