Housing Options and Homelessness

What personal information is being processed and what for

Personal data – name, address, date of birth, historic addresses, telephone number, email address. Sensitive data – income, expenditure, health and health care, employment, equality data – disability, gender, age, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, marriage, sexual orientation. Data is collected for the purposes of contacting an applicant, identifying an applicant, establishing eligibility for assistance, determining housing needs and support needs.

Why we are allowed to use your information

The Housing Act 1996 parts 6 and 7 require local authorities to assess eligibility and priority for housing. Under both acts we are legally required to investigate and evidence decisions made. By submitting an application and subsequently placing bids for properties applicants are permitting the use and subsequent sharing of information for the purposes of assessment for accommodation or support.

This meets the following conditions in article 6 of GDPR legislation:

• The data subject has given consent.
• The processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation.
• Processing is necessary in order to protect the vial interests of he data subject.

This also grants consent to the processing special categories of data in Article 9 of GDPR legislation.

Who we will share your information with

Housing and accommodation support providers as determined in the Common Allocations Policy. Adults Social Care, Children’s Social care where matters of safeguarding arise.

Where we get your information from

In addition to the information you provide, personal data will also be collected from previous landlords/ accommodation providers, Support and Social Workers, GPs, hospitals, HMRC, Police, Probation services, DWP, or publicly available sources such as social media, news and public records

How long we will keep your personal information

We will keep your data for a maximum period of 6 years. 

Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will keep your data for a maximum period of 25 years. BEIS may choose to store anonymised data beyond this period.

How your information is stored

On a secure data base, hosted on external servers, access is authenticated and password protected.

What happens if you don’t provide us with your information

If you do not consent to providing information, we may not be able to permit an application for accommodation or support.

Will your information be used to make automated decisions

No

Your rights

You have a number of rights regarding your personal data, including withdrawing your consent where we have asked for it. You can also ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and ask us to correct anything that is wrong. For detailed information about your rights please see our privacy notice for Cheshire East.