Accommodation Waiting Times
Case reference FOI2023/00729
Published 18 May 2023
Request
I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act for information held by the council Specifically, I would like the following information:
1. The total number of people currently on the waiting list for council housing properties, broken down by bedroom number?
2. The number of people currently on the waiting list for housing in each area of the council, broken down by property bedroom number?
3. The anticipated waiting time for council accommodation, broken down by bedroom number.
4. The anticipated waiting time for council accommodation in each geographical area, broken down by bedroom property number.
5. The average waiting time for council accommodation, broken down by bedroom number, in each of the last ten years.
6. The average waiting time for council accommodation in each geographical area, broken down by bedroom number, in each of the last ten years.
Response
I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act for information held by the council Specifically, I would like the following information:
1. The total number of people currently on the waiting list for council housing properties, broken down by bedroom number?
2. The number of people currently on the waiting list for housing in each area of the council, broken down by property bedroom number?
3. The anticipated waiting time for council accommodation, broken down by bedroom number.
4. The anticipated waiting time for council accommodation in each geographical area, broken down by bedroom property number.
5. The average waiting time for council accommodation, broken down by bedroom number, in each of the last ten years.
6. The average waiting time for council accommodation in each geographical area, broken down by bedroom number, in each of the last ten years.
This information is not held in a form that would enable it to be located, retrieved and extracted within the Appropriate Time Limit which equates to 18 hours as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Electronic reporting systems are unable to run a report for this information. To ascertain the data requested officers would need to manually check the case files of every person currently on the housing waiting list and read all of the case notes to identify the geographical areas of the council and waiting times broken down by bedroom number.
An initial search has shown that case files of 1794 people currently on the waiting list would need to be checked for this information in this way, and it is estimated that it would take approximately 10 minutes to check each file.
This would at a conservative estimate take at least 299 hours to complete. Where the Limit is exceeded Public Authorities are not obliged to supply the information requested by virtue of S12 of the Act. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
We would be able to provide a response to question one within 18 hours, please let us know if you would like us to provide you with this response.
Alternatively, if you have any suggestions as to how your request can be reduced in scope to take it under the limit please let us know.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.