04 January 2023
Your request
Please note that DLUHC publishes homelessness data by quarter rather than by month - this request asks for data by month, because the intention is to compare the trajectory of homelessness presentations and decisions in England with the trajectories in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where additional tenant protections have been introduced. Monthly data is necessary for this purpose because of the specific timing of these tenant protections, and is not published elsewhere or scheduled for future publication elsewhere.
1. The number of households who were initially assessed for eligibility for homelessness support each month in 2022 (regardless of the outcome of that assessment)
2. The number of households who were assessed as being owed the prevention duty each month in 2022
3. The monthly figures for question 2 where the reason for the threat of loss of home was the end of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) (where the AST ended for any reason, including those specified in questions 4 and 5)
4. The monthly figures for question 2 where the reason for the threat of loss of home was the end of an AST due to rent arrears
5. The monthly figures for question 2 where the reason for the threat of loss of home was the end of an AST due to the landlord wishing to sell or re-let the property
6. The number of households who were assessed as being owed the relief duty as the outcome of their initial assessment (i.e. not at the end of their prevention duty) each month in 2022
7. The monthly figures for question 6 where the reason for the loss of home was the end of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) (where the AST ended for any reason, including those specified in questions 8 and 9)
8. The monthly figures for question 6 where the reason for the loss of home was the end of an AST due to rent arrears
9. The monthly figures for question 6 where the reason for the loss of home was the end of an AST due to the landlord wishing to sell or re-let the property
10. The number of households who were assessed as being owed the main housing duty each month in 2022
11. The number of households who were owed the relief duty at the end of their prevention duty period, each month in 2022
This request is for data on decisions taken in each month - so, if a household was initially assessed in January, but a decision to grant it the prevention duty (due to AST rent arrears) was made in February, that household would count towards the January figure for question 1 and the February figure for questions 2, 3 and 4. If at the end of its prevention duty period the household was then granted the relief duty in April, it would count towards the April figure for question 11. However, if the council holds data in a different way (e.g. counting the household in the above example as 'January' for questions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 11) please provide it in that format.
Our response
Please see attached spreadsheet.
With regard to Q11, I can confirm that we have reviewed your request but consider that to comply with the request would exceed the cost/time limit specified by s12 FOIA.
Section 12 (cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit)
12. — (1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.
In this instance, we have decided that the process of determining whether the information is held will exceed the Appropriate Limit as provided by The Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
The Appropriate Limit applies to costs/time the Council reasonably expects to use in carrying out the following activities to comply with your request:
- Determine whether the information is held
- Locating the information or documents containing the information
- Retrieving such information or documents
- Extracting the information from the document
The Appropriate Limit is currently set at £450 which is the equivalent to 18 hours of work at £25 per hour.
As this information is not centrally held, the records require a manual trawl, and it is estimated that to retrieve the information for this request would take between 3-4 minutes per record to collate. As there are approximately 1400 files, it would take over 18 hours and therefore the process of retrieving and collecting the data exceeds the Appropriate Limit
In accordance with Section 17 FOIA this letter represents a Refusal Notice for this request.
Should you wish to redefine or shorten your request then please resubmit another request to us and we will consider if we can respond. For example, you may reduce the period of time to a few months, one month or weeks/days. Please note this advice is offered as a suggestion and does not guarantee the information can be provided.