FOI request details

Request

Subject: Social housing and Right-to-Buy sales

Reference: WBC-FOI-00366

I came across the available data on aggregate social housing stock and Right-to-Buy sales at local authority level. However, more detailed information would be of great assistance in answering my research question. Therefore, I hereby submit a Freedom of Information request. I would like access to more detailed data, i.e. at a finer geographical level, on social housing stock and Right-to-Buy sales in the Council area for the period 1980-2021.

Ideally, the data would follow the following format:

Variable of interests: Properties sold under Right-to-Buy and Social/Council housing stock Geographical unit: As granular as possible (eg. full postcode or full address) Time unit: As granular as possible (eg. Quarter or Year) Period covered: As large as possible between 1980 and present time.

Area covered: As large as possible (eg. all properties managed by the Council at any point in time) File Format: .xlsx (Excel)

Response

None Disclosed - 30 January 2023

Request for Information - WBC-FOI-00366 - Social housing and Right-to-Buy sales

I refer to your request for information received on 09 January 2023. Please see the information below in response to your request: -

Your Request:

I came across the available data on aggregate social housing stock and Right-to-Buy sales at local authority level. However, more detailed information would be of great assistance in answering my research question. Therefore, I hereby submit a Freedom of Information request. I would like access to more detailed data, i.e. at a finer geographical level, on social housing stock and Right-to-Buy sales in the Council area for the period 1980-2021.

Ideally, the data would follow the following format:

Variable of interests: Properties sold under Right-to-Buy and Social/Council housing stock Geographical unit: As granular as possible (eg. full postcode or full address) Time unit: As granular as possible (eg. Quarter or Year) Period covered: As large as possible between 1980 and present time.

Area covered: As large as possible (eg. all properties managed by the Council at any point in time) File Format: .xlsx (Excel)

Our Response:

Section 12:

In accordance with section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we are not obliged to comply with your request as the process of identifying, locating, retrieving and, where appropriate, extracting the information would exceed the 'appropriate limit' as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. This is currently £450. We estimate that to process your request and would take significantly in excess of 18 hours. The Housing and Regeneration Department are unable to provide all of the information for this request as prior to 2010, all completions were recorded manually on hard copy records. In order to provide the addresses and finer information that we would hold for this request pre-2010, each completion record would need to be reviewed individually and summarised. As at 5th January 2023, there were a total of 13,791 completions and at an estimate of up to 5 minutes to review each one, it would take in excess of 1,149 hours to provide the information requested.

Section 21:

The information on all properties managed by the Council can be found in the Area Housing Panel Performance Reports here on the Council's website. These figures are updated annually and the last 3 years' information is listed on there currently.

If you are dissatisfied with the information provided in relation to your request, you may make representations to the Information and Transparency Manager. Any such request for an internal review should be made within 40 days from today's date. Correspondence should be addressed to: FOIW@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision at: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Regards,

FOI and DPA Officer

FOIW@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

Please note that our responses were accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of release, and have not subsequently been updated. This information should be considered an historical record only.