Housing Register, Homelessness Services, Housing Advice – Privacy Notice
When you contact us if you are homeless or threatened with homelessness or about your housing options, or the housing register, we will ask you for your personal details and the personal details for your household. This means we need to provide you with certain information which explains what happens with your information.
If you are a landlord working with the Council, we will ask for details relating specifically to your property.
Who we are and what we do
Stratford-on-Avon District Council is a data controller under the Data Protection Legislation. We will use your personal data to maintain the housing register (Home Choice Plus), provide Housing Advice and Homelessness Services in fulfilment of our housing function and to meet our statutory and regulatory obligations. We do this in the performance of tasks that we carry out in the public interest in the exercise of our official authority.
This notice explains why we ask for your personal information, how that information will be used and how you can access your records.
Any questions regarding our privacy practices should be sent to:
Data Protection Officer, Stratford-on-Avon District Council, Elizabeth House, Church Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 6HX
Telephone: 01789 267575
Email: data.protection@stratford-dc.gov.uk
What personal data we may collect from you
- Basic information such as name, date of birth, gender, address, telephone number, email address
- Details about your household composition, income, allowances, benefits, outgoings, outstanding debts, savings and investments including those of your partner and any dependents
- Information about nationality, right to remain and ethnicity including National Asylum Support Service number
- Housing circumstances and housing history
- Details of any property or land that you own
- Rent and property details – including rent charges and landlord information
- Employment information and national insurance numbers
- Information about medical or health conditions and mental capacity information
- Referral/ assessment information
- Risks and vulnerabilities, including details of people who are providing you with professional support
- Any other information provided in support of an application, such as medical evidence, proof of identification or any other information required to process your application with us
- We also collect special personal data, which includes religion, ethnic origin, disability and sexual orientation
Why we need your information and how we use it
The Council has to collect personal information from individuals to enable us to fulfil our statutory obligations in terms of:
- Providing Housing Advice and Homelessness Services to the residents, landlords and tenants of the district
- Identifying housing needs, preventing homelessness and managing the Housing Register (Home Choice Plus).
- Homelessness discretionary powers and duties
- Processing and delivering the Council's Tenancy Access Scheme (the Council's rent deposit, bond and guarantee scheme) and administering claims and repayments under the Scheme taking measures to improve the quality of services provided by landlords and letting agents
- Providing information to relevant government department covering housing and local government to meet reporting requirements under the legislation
- To process applications for any grants, loans, or other financial assistance, and to help with the collection of money owed to Stratford-on-Avon District Council
- Conduct surveys, audits, and performance monitoring in order to facilitate service improvements
- Provide you with further information updates and news about related services
We have a statutory obligation to provide these services in accordance with the following legislations. Please note this list is not exhaustive:
- Housing Acts 1985, 1988, 1996
- Localism Act 2011
- Homelessness Act 2002
- Housing Act 2004
- Right to Rent Act 2015
- Homelessness Reduction Act 2017
We will only ask for personal information that is appropriate to enable us to deliver our services. In some cases, you can refuse to provide your details if you deem a request to be inappropriate. However, you should note that this may impact on our ability to provide some services to you.
Where information may have originated and who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)
During the course of our activities, we may share some information with other organisations, contact them for further information about your household, or refer you to them for further support. This may include:
- Other public authorities and public partnerships (e.g. councils, schools, NHS providers, GPs and other health providers, Police, HM Revenue and Customs, HM Courts and Tribunal Service, Department for Work and Pensions, government departments etc.)
- Voluntary and community sector and other non-commercial sector organisations that help us deliver services
- Registered Housing Providers, housing charities and private landlords and letting agencies. For example we may share credit referencing and landlord references and relevant information about risks and vulnerabilities if you are being helped through the Housing Register (Home Choice Plus) or a Council Scheme into accommodation including in the private sector
- Our external contractors and advisors that we contract with to help us deliver services
- The Council's temporary accommodation service
- Hotels and guest houses (for example where you are accommodated under a discretionary power or statutory duty under homelessness legislation)
- Audit services, inventory companies, debt collection agencies, enforcement agencies, credit referencing agencies
- Software providers for the purpose of carrying out our functions
How long we keep your information (retention period)
Your personal data will be held wherever possible in accordance with our Retention and Destruction Policy, which is available on our website. We will not keep your information for longer than necessary.
Your rights
You have rights under the Data Protection Legislations:
- To access your personal data
- To be provided with information about how your personal data is processed
- To have your personal data corrected
- To have your personal data erased in certain circumstances
- To object to or restrict how your personal data is processed
- To have your personal data transferred to yourself or to another business in certain circumstances
- You have the right to be told if we have made a mistake whilst processing your data and we will self report breaches to the Commissioner.
How you can access, update, or correct your information
If you wish to see a copy of your records, you should contact the Data Protection Officer. You are entitled to receive a copy of our records free of charge, within a month.
The accuracy of your information is important to us to be able to provide relevant services more quickly. We are working to make our record keeping more efficient. In the meantime, if you change your address or email address, or if any of your circumstances change, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date please email us or write to us at:
Housing Advice Team
Stratford-on-Avon District Council, Elizabeth House, Church Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 6HX
Email: housingadviceteam@stratford-dc.gov.uk
Telephone: 01789 260861
Further information
If you would like to know more about how we use your information, or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this document, please tell us. Please visit www.stratford.gov.uk/privacy or contact our Data Protection Officer by post at our Elizabeth House office, by e-mail at data.protection@stratford-gov.uk or by telephone on our mainline number 01789 267575.
In addition to our own complaints procedure, you can also complain to the Information Commissioners Office
