FOI request (FOIR-523143924)

Housing Estate Evacuation 1999

Requested Mon 12 June 2023
Responded Fri 16 June 2023

Under Freedom of Information laws, will you please provide the following information:

1. What was the 'official reason' for the social housing accommodation blocks of flats on the 'Chiltern Drive Estate' area of Hastings being entirely emptied of all tenant occupation in 1999/2000?

2. Who made this decision and why?

3. For exactly how long were all those properties kept empty of tenants?

4. What 'works' were carried out inside all those properties during the time that they were kept unoccupied?

5. What companies were involved in those 'works'?

6. Were the properties electrically re-wired?

7. Were those properties still controlled by Hastings Borough Council at the time of this mass eviction of occupants?

8. If not controlled by the council, what company/companies had control of those properties at that time, and thereafter?

9. Why were the properties not all rented out at the same time, once prepared for re-occupation?

10. Why were those properties not re-occupied from the existing and extensive list of people who had been waiting years for social housing accommodation in central Hastings and its surrounding areas?

11. Who 'officially' made the decisions on exactly which people would be homed in those properties once they were prepared for re-occupation?

12. Exactly how long did it take for all of the emptied properties on the 'Chiltern Drive' housing estate in Hastings to be fully re-occupied?

13. Were any other housing estates in the Borough similarly de-occupied of all tenants, and if so when, and why?

14. Were these housing estates also similarly subject to the same set of circumstances as Chiltern Drive?

15. Were any other Council Boroughs in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland similarly subject to the same set of circumstances surrounding their social housing stock in certain areas, during that time period, or thereafter?

Response

Q1-11 - The Council's housing stock was transferred to 1066 Housing Association (now Southern Housing) in 1996 as part of a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT). Please contact Southern Housing directly for information regarding the 'Chiltern Drive Estate'.

Most of the social housing in the borough are owned and managed by Registered Providers (housing associations). The two biggest are Southern Housing and Orbit. They advertise vacant properties on Sussex Homemove at:

https://www.sussexhomemove.org.uk/choice/

Sussex Homemove is a Choice Based Lettings system where customers on our housing register place bids on available properties. We 'nominate' eligible customers from these shortlists directly to the housing association who then arrange viewings directly with these customer and then 'offer' the property to them. We would require the exact addresses you are referring to as we are unable to check if these properties were re-let via Sussex Homemove.

Q12 - We are unable to provide this information without the exact addresses in order to check if these properties were advertised/let via Sussex Homemove to customers on our housing register.

Q13 - Please contact the Register Providers (housing associations) directly for this information.

Q14 - Please contact the Register Providers (housing associations) directly for this information.

Q15 - Information not held