The Empty Homes Network has recently sent out a Freedome of Information Request to English housing authorities. This is the first time that the Network has done anything of this kind. The FOI requests will no doubt percolate their way down to many of our members in due course - apologies for adding to your workload!
The text of the FOI request is given below in case you don't get to see the original email:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to [council name].
We would appreciate your response by email to FOIRequest@ehnetwork.org.uk in a format that will make it easy for us to extract the substance of your response and collate it with other responses (i.e. by copying and pasting).
Background to this request
As an organisation comprised largely of local authority employees the Empty Homes Network is naturally reluctant to load additional work onto over-stretched colleagues. However, we think that the information supplied will help us build a stronger case for local authority involvement and leadership in empty homes work and will ultimately be to the benefit of the local government sector. Moreover, we believe that the time required to respond to the request will not be significant.
As a courtesy we have provided the rationale for our questions and invite any further clarification that you may wish to provide based on the rationale given.
Information Requested
1. Please list the job-titles of all your employees who work directly with private sector owners to bring private sector empty property back into use for housing and for each job-title listed, please give the “Full-time-equivalent” resource dedicated to empty homes work (See Note below). “Private sector” does not include housing association properties
2. Of the FTE resource identified above how much is on time-limited contracts (i.e. not permanent positions, agency staff etc)?
3. How much New Homes Bonus, if any, was allocated by your council in 2012-13 specifically to bringing empty homes back into use or other aspects of your empty homes initiative?
4. How much unused capacity (in pounds sterling) do you currently have (in 2012-13) to take on prudential borrowing under prudential borrowing rules?
Note on calculating number of FTE posts
If an employee works full-time on empty homes that would be 1.
If an employee spends 2 days a week on empty homes that would be 0.4 (the employee might spend 3 days a week on other work)
If there are two employees with the job title both working 3 days a week that would be 1.2
If an employee works across more than one authority, the time spent should be estimated pro-rata for your particular authority.
Details of Requestor
David Gibbens (Policy Lead/Secretary), Empty Homes Network
PO Box 703, Exeter, EX1 9PX
Tel.: 0844 736 5 736
Web: www.ehnetwork.org.uk
Rationale behind our questions
Question 1 helps us to plot the extent of resources being devoted to bringing private sector empty homes back into use and the extent to which empty homes work has been recognised as a specialism deserving a separate job title.
Question 2 helps us to gauge the extent to which empty homes work has been “mainstreamed” within local authorities.
Question 3 helps us to gauge the extent to which councils have recognised the contribution made by empty homes interventions to delivering New Homes Bonus by hypothecating NHB to the task.
Question 4 reflects our belief that prudential borrowing could be used to bolster the capital required by empty homes initiatives, given that owners usually have significant equity in long-term empties sufficient to cover any land charges resulting from loans or grants by local authorities.