FOI request 5598
1. How many people are under Council’s Housing waiting list at present ?
Would you please specify the age group, gender and the number of minorities,BME community who are in the council's housing waiting list.
Oldham Council Response:
No. of households on Register: 11,262 as at end of Sept. 2013
Age group:
under 25 - 2100
26-55 - 6932
56+ 2330
Gender: Not available
BME: 2950
2. Would you please give specify how many people have applied for one bedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom, four bedroom, five bedroom in year 2012-2013?
Oldham Council Response:
1 bed - 5440
2 bed - 2774
3 bed - 1319
4 bed - 446
5 bed+ - 153
3.Please provide number of how many people you have accommodated following the statutory duty under housing act who have been declared themselves as homeless and sissified the homelessness assessment process. Please give number by year starting from January 2012 to December 2013.Please also specify their gender,age group and if possible ethnic identity.
Oldham Council Response:
During the financial year 2012/13 a total of 151 households were provided with temporary accommodation under a homelessness duty.
During the first three quarters of the financial year 2013/14 (April – December 2013) a total of 95 households were provided with temporary accommodation under a homelessness duty.
4.Please provide number the people who are in current council waiting list who are homeless.
Oldham Council Response:
There are currently (as at end January 2014) 143 open cases on the housing register where there is a reference of ‘homelessness’. This will include cases where enquiries have yet to be completed into whether the household is homeless under law and those who may have been offered accommodation but are waiting for this to become available.
5.Please share what are the present council policy to address homelessness. And how council is allocating budget for that.
Oldham Council Response:
Please see the response to Q8, which includes the Council’s current strategy for preventing homelessness within Oldham.
6.Please share the total number of council house and please specify the type of the house and number and area and how many are current empty.
Oldham Council Response:
The council owns 2095 properties. Off these 1456 are managed through the PFI 2 Sheltered Housing scheme and 639 through the Gateways to Oldham PFI Scheme.
In terms of PFI 2, 603 are flats within group schemes. The table below gives their location, room size and number of flats.
Area1 bed / 2 bed / Total
Chadderton / 14 / 11 / 25
Failsworth / 43 / 12 / 55
Hollinwood / 62 / 17 / 79
Delph / 24 / 1 / 25
Greenfield / 28 / 4 / 32
Grotton / 15 / 6 / 21
Lees / 10 / 4 / 14
Springhead / 87 / 11 / 98
Waterhead / 30 / 17 / 47
Coldhurst / 68 / 18 / 86
Royton / 72 / 16 / 88
Shaw / 30 / 3 / 33
483 / 120 / 603
The remaining 853 homes are 1 bed bungalows which are located in the following areas:
Alt - 37
Chadderton -270
Failsworth - 175
Greenfield - 6
Hathershaw - 42
Hollins - 12
Hollinwood - 32
Holts - 111
Lees - 12
Primrose Bank - 11
Royton - 35
Shaw - 105
Royton - 5
In terms of the Gateways to Oldham Scheme, there are the following numbers of homes at:
Primrose Bank - 167 (sizes are 37 x 2 bed, 80 x 3 bed, 36 x 4 bed and 14 x 5 bed).
Chadderton - 358 (sizes are 180 x 2 bed, 144 x 3 bed, 27 x 4 bed, 7 x 5 bed)
Westwood - 36 (Sizes are 4 x 2 bed, 13 x 3 bed, 15 x 4 bed and 4 x 5 bed).
Keswick Ave (under construction) - 78 (sizes are 48 x 3 bed, 25 x 4 bed and 5 x 5 bed)
Number of empty council properties as at April 2013 = 127 (this includes properties which were being refurbished at this time).
7.Please provide how much council had spent yearly since January 2012 to December 2013,to build new council house/flat.
Oldham Council Response:
The homes are owned by the council but are managed on a long term contract (25 years) through the Gateways to Oldham PFI Project.
2012: £13,873
2013:£958,192
8.According to the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002) all Local Authorities must have a Homelessness Strategy in place What are the homelessness strategy of the Council.Please share the yearly the yearly of starting from January 2012 to December 2013.
Oldham Council Response:
Please find attached the strategies in place over the period that your enquiry relates to.
10. Under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002) Council has certain responsibilities towards people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. Would you please provide number, age,gender to whom you provided service following the specific law.
Oldham Council Response:
Year / Total Cases / Main applicant - Female / Main applicant - Male2012 / 102 / 60 / 42
2013 / 105 / 72 / 33
Unfortunately we are not able to provide more detailed information regarding the age of applicants.
11.How long you take to process housing benefit claim. How many housing benefit claim has been process by the council since January 2012 to December 2013. Please provide number of each year.
Oldham Council Response:
January 2012 – December 2012Avg length of time = 23 days
Number 15,447
January 2013 – December 2013Avg length of time = 26 days
Number 13,489
12. How much council had spent to pay the employee who are working on homeless issues in council. Please give yearly details starting from January 2012 to December 2013.
Oldham Council Response:
Under the Act, Oldham Council has a duty to supply any information on request, unless there is an exemption. It is the Council’s policy only to apply the exemptions where there is a genuine risk of harm or prejudice. In such cases, we will still provide information if it is in the public interest to do so. With regards to your request for the information regarding how much the council spent on employees working on homelessness issues that the exemption still applies. In summary, the information is personal data, and to disclose would breach the data protection principles and hence exemption Section 40(2) is engaged.
For your information
Personal data is defined in the Data Protection Act, 1998 (DPA) at section 1 (1), as follows:-data which relate to a living individual who can be identified:-
from those data; or
from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller ….”
The information in “bold” in the above definition is key as information can be gained from other sources now and in the future.
It has been established that the information requested would be classified as personal data albeit, information about the individual in their public role. Salaries paid by the Council are information about employees working life, rather than their private life. However, if the individuals were to be identified this may result in an unwarranted intrusion into their personal and individual relationship with their employer and may affect their private life.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed to:
Mr P Entwistle, Borough Solicitor,
OMBC, PO Box 33,Civic Centre, West Street,Oldham OL1 1UL
Tel 0161 770 4822
Email:
Should you further disagree with the decision following the appeal you may wish to contact the Office of the Information Commissioner:
Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, CheshireSK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 1231113 Fax: 01625 524510
13. How many people were successfully prosecuted for housing benefit fraud during year 2012 and 2013?
Oldham Council Response:
01/04/2012 - 31/03/2013 - 15 Prosecutions (plus 52 Formal Cautions and 3 Administration Penalties)
01/04/2013 - 24/01/2013 - 15 Prosecutions (plus 2 Formal Cautions and 2 Administration Penalties)
14. Did council appointed any third party to find out or tackle benefit fraud. If yes, Who is the company and how much council has paid them for the service.
Oldham Council Response:
No