FOI request (FOIR-375366001)

Number of empty council houses

Requested Tue 02 November 2021
Responded  Fri 12 November 2021

Can you advise what are the numbers of empty council owned houses only (and not all empty properties) in the borough by financial year?

The following FOI showed some of the data but not quite what I want as it requested data for all empty properties which I assume included privately owned properties whereas I would like to know only about council owned properties.

Can you also advise, for just the current empty properties, how many and for how long have these been vacant aged by quarter (that is, by 3 months intervals)?

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FOI request (FOIR-274616089)

Empty homes and homelessness

Requested Fri 20 November 2020

Responded Tue 08 December 2020

This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. My request relates to empty residential properties and homelessness.

1. I would like to request the number of residential properties within your council area (not limited to council or social housing) which have had no residents for the entirety (or most of) the following years:

a. 2016/17

b. 2017/18

c. 2018/19

d. 2019-20

e. 2020-21

Please specify if this is recorded by calendar or financial year? My preference would be for financial. If you are unable to provide data for the whole year then 4 snapshots at different dates throughout the year should help paint a picture of empty homes in the area.

Response

Q1 - Empty homes:

This information is held in financial years:

a. 2016/17 - 53

b. 2017-18 - 69

c. 2018/19 - 184

d. 2019/20 - 510

e. 2020/21 - 583

Response

Hastings Borough Council does not own any residential accommodation. We own accommodation to be used as temporary accommodation to assist with the rise in homelessness in this area.

The only times when these properties have been vacant is after purchase and when works are required to meet the current legislation. The properties will be vacant after changeovers for cleaning and minor repairs.

The social housing stock in Hastings is owned and managed by Registered Providers (Housing Associations).

The two main ones are Optivo and Orbit.

Housing does not hold information on how long their properties are empty for.

We do have 3 properties owned by Hastings Borough Council for letting. Details of unoccupied periods, by financial years, are as follows:

2018/2019 - 2, both empty between 19/02/2019 and 31/03/2019

2019/2020 - 3, empty between:

01/04/2019 and 14/05/2019

01/04/2019 and 05/06/2019

02/12/2019 and 17/02/2020