FI16416

Request

I would like to ask for the number of homes which were sold under RtB rules between the beginning of the scheme in 1980 and March 31 2025 which have since been rebought by the council (on any date to the date this request is received).  

Crucially, I would ask for the following information on each home rebought under the scheme.  

Address (as far as it can be shared)

Right to Buy Sale price 

Sale date

Repurchase price 

Repurchase date 

Response

The full addresses of the properties have been withheld as this is considered personal data and therefore exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act.  Personal data is defined by Article 4(1) of GDPR and also Section 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the release of this data would contravene the data protection principles. 

In addition, the Council does not hold details of the original sale price in a manner that can be reported on, and it would require tracing the original property file, searching, retrieving and collating this data.  As this information is not readily available and from our preliminary assessment, we have estimated that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’.   The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for Local Government it is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in determining whether the information is held, locating, retrieving and extracting the data. I regret therefore, that on this occasion I must refuse this part of your request in accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.

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