FOI request (FOIR-509120982)

Temporary Accommodation - Nightly Rates

Requested Wed 19 April 2023
Responded Fri 12 May 2023

1. How many properties do you currently have on Temporary Accommodation?

2. Please can you advise us on the maximum that is paid per night for a Studio, 1 Bed, 2 Bed, 3 Bed, and 4 Bed?

3. Who are your largest 5 suppliers? How much do you pay them on average every month? Please provide the last 3 months they have invoiced you for?

4. If we were to supply accommodation on this basis, please can you give us contact names and telephone numbers of the procurement team?

Response

1. Hasting Borough Council currently has 531 households in temporary accommodation. Most of these properties are owned and managed by private providers. We secure temporary accommodation properties on a daily basis as and when needed.

2. Refused (see Refusal Notice below)

3. Refused (see Refusal Notice below)

4. Please email:

temporaryaccommodation@hastings.gov.uk

NOTICE OF REFUSAL

The information you have requested in relation to Questions 2 and 3 is commercially sensitive and falls under Section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act - Commercially Sensitive Information.

Information prejudicing commercial interests - commercial interest relating to an organisation's commercial activity and may include trading activity, procurement and relationships with third parties.

The exemption afforded by Section 43 is subject to what is known as the 'public interest test'. When applying the test in a particular case a public authority is deciding whether the public interest is better served by non-disclosure than by disclosure.

Although the Freedom of Information Act does not define 'in the public interest', there is a presumption under Freedom of Information that openness is in the public interest. In applying the public interest test a public authority will take into account the distinction that has been often made by courts between things that are in the public interest, and things that merely interest the public. Where applicants have not identified public interest considerations succinctly or accurately, the public authority has a responsibility under the Act to make their own assessment of the public interest considerations in the particular case.

We have identified the following public interest factors that may be seen as encouraging the disclosure of information:

a) accountability of public spending

We consider these factors to be of limited relevance in relation to the information in question.

Public interest factors seen as encouraging non-disclosure are, generally, the exemptions themselves. In consideration of this matter we came to the following conclusions:

a) ensuring that companies are able to compete for business fairly

b) damage to reputation and/or financial interests

In weighing the factors for and against disclosure we have concluded that the likely benefit to the applicant and the wider public of disclosure is outweighed by the likely prejudice caused by such disclosure and that therefore the public interest is better served by non-disclosure.

For the reasons given above, we will not be communicating to you the information you have requested.