In February 2021 North Lanarkshire Council launched a downsizing initiative to assist tenants living in under-occupied properties to move to smaller homes. Press releases and the Council’s Tenants’ News advertised a £1,500 grant and practical assistance ranging from packing boxes to redirecting mail.
“To be eligible for the scheme, one of the criteria is that tenants must currently reside in properties with three or more bedrooms. As an added incentive, tenants who successfully downsize will receive £1,500 to help with the moving process.” (Tenant News Summer Update 2023)
North Lanarkshire Council manage their £1,500 Downsizing Grant utilising the ‘Incentive to Downsize Guidance and Payment Process’. Properties surrendered should be of a type in demand that the council is unable to meet in accordance with ‘pressure analysis’ information and demand.
‘Pressure analysis’ information is compiled from waiting list numbers, allocations made and housing stock levels to determine overall pressure. This overall pressure, along with turnover rates determines which letting areas will be included as high demand/low turnover on a ‘demand/pressure analysis list’.
Pressure analysis and turnover information is only based on letting area and size and is therefore not always representative of demand for specific property types. Locality managers have discretion to add and remove properties from the ‘demand/pressure list’ but must provide an explanation for doing so to aid transparency and inform future applications
Housing officers have the demand/pressure list immediately to hand so there should be little risk of an application being made for an ineligible property.
Applying for the £1,500 downsizing grant
The process is initiated upon enquiry, you don’t need to have been offered a new home to check eligibility, in principle. Or upon a housing options interview/pre-termination visit, you have an offer and a housing officer is checking the condition of your current home.
North Lanarkshire Council have 20 working days to advise a tenant of the outcome of the grant application and tenants might reasonably expect council to make best effort to do so, prior to moving.
Tenants normally visit the new home with a housing officer and if they accept it they can sign the tenancy agreement and obtain the keys at that point. Tenants would typically then have seven to ten days to move to their new home, taking longer could incur charges for both properties.
The ‘Incentive to Downsize Guidance and Payment Process’ is not public, North Lanarkshire Council housing officers do not provide tenants with the policy, or any abridged form of it. Tenants do not have sight of, or input to, the downsizing grant application form, they are excluded from the process and entirely reliant on information provided/actions undertaken by a housing officer.
This exclusion should be of little risk and consequence, given the fundamental premise of the incentive, the public messaging and policy guidance … right?
What went wrong
We downsized in August 2022. The same housing officer assured us that we were eligible for the downsizing grant, at the pre-termination visit, at the signing of the tenancy agreement in our new home, and in two subsequent telephone calls. We were told there was nothing we need do, the housing officer would submit the application after we moved and it might take some time for payment. We had no reason to doubt the housing officer.
On 4 October 2022 I raised an online complaint as to the whereabouts of the funds and a week later North Lanarkshire Council advised that we were not eligible as our former home was not on the demand/pressure analysis list. This was ten weeks (51 working days) after the pre-termination visit and seven weeks (37 working days) after we moved home.
Complaints and subject access requests
Thereafter followed a request for the downsizing grant policy and demand/pressure analysis, a Stage 2 complaint and subject access requests, all of which took some six months to complete.
North Lanarkshire Council failed to adhere to their complaints procedures and it would take a letter to the council’s chief executive, to press its head of housing to fully respond to our Stage 2 complaint.
“An application (grant) can only be decided when the tenant has signed the missive (tenancy agreement) and accepted a property, as a decision is made on the demand and pressure analysis for the property being surrendered at the time of the property being terminated.”
Their response not only contravened policy, it breached the spirit and premise of the incentive. Council guidance states the application is ‘decided’ within 20 working days of enquiry or housing options interview/pre-termination visit. Letter templates from that guidance evidence that a grant application is ‘decided’ prior to signing missives (tenancy agreement).
Incentive to Downsize Guidance and Payment Process, Page 19 (Revision 1.0, dated April 2022 released under FOI)
North Lanarkshire Council refuted our version of our engagement with the housing officer and stated that ‘a range of staff interviews and discussion have taken place’. In subject access responses council would ‘…confirm that no records were made of these discussions.’
On 19 April 2023 North Lanarkshire Council finally disclosed evidence of the duty of care owed to us, an internal email accompanying the grant application submitted just two working days after the pre-termination visit.
“… area is not on the list of pressured areas but, eight houses left and zero vacancies in the last year with a list of 77 waiting for this type of property.”
The location manager did not provide explanation to aid transparency on the grant application form, we can only assume the housing officer’s reasoning was an exception based on demand and turnover in accordance with policy.
In respect of complaints procedures and the downsizing grant a Citizens Advice Bureau adviser suggested that North Lanarkshire Council’s “conduct and decision may have been made outwith the terms of its own rules and consequently may be unfair and irrational”.
The case failed to progress through the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and the same Advice Bureau adviser suggested the Ombudsman’s Case Officer “may not have acted fairly in reaching their decision in giving more weight to evidence obtained from Local Authority than a reasonable officer should do and giving insufficient weight or ignoring the evidence that you have shown”.
A Decision Review Request to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman was not upheld.
Did anyone else in North Lanarkshire endure a similar fate?
A Freedom of Information request revealed that in the period July 2022 to March 2024, there were 42 downsizing grant applications.
Of those that were unsuccessful, two made a complaint or raised concern about the process; one in October 2022 and one in August 2023.
First breach – database screenshots disclosure from anti-social behaviour system
Despite my subject access requests being entirely specific to the downsizing grant, on 19 April 2023 North Lanarkshire Council disclosed screenshots from their anti-social behaviour database. There were six separate allegations about myself and my husband during the period from November 2013 to April 2015 from a complainant known to us. The screenshots revealed special category data, personal sensitive information, about the complainant along with their wishes on how North Lanarkshire Council should handle the complaint in respect to us. There was an attempt to redact this information, however it was fully readable.
North Lanarkshire Council had not only exposed and compromised the complainant, but they had also compromised themselves. Council had telephoned us in March 2014 in respect of the first of the six complaints. In email responses they would later deny the nature of that telephone conversation and when I requested they provide all the relevant detail of the complaint they assured us they were ‘… not investigating yourself or your husband for any involvement in a neighbour dispute or are aware of any ongoing issues.’
The anti-social behaviour database screenshot proved otherwise. Had council complied with GDPR and afforded us the complaint details when requested we may well have prevented the further five allegations.
The screenshots detailed a database record, the field containing the details of the individual(s) being complained about is titled, ‘offender’, a term also used in the record notes.
The breach of the complainant’s sensitive personal information was immediately reported to North Lanarkshire Council and all of the screenshots deleted from my emails.
I requested the details, evidence and retention periods for each allegation but the council refused to provide the information and failed to recognise us as the data subjects.
Information Commissioner’s Office
In January 2024 I complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and, given these were anti-social behaviour records, I suggested they liaise with Police Scotland.
The ICO responded in June 2024. They reminded North Lanarkshire Council, in general terms, of their duties under GDPR in respect of the third-party breaches but disregarded the evidence of the breach of our rights, in entirety, and made no contact with Police Scotland. They did however comment
“The use of the term ‘offender’ is not a data protection issue. I agree that this is not a pleasant term for them to use, but the ICO cannot prevent them from using these terms.”
I raised complaint with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman about the Information Commissioners Office’s handling of our rights in the case. It was not upheld.
Scottish Housing Regulator
I raised a serious concern about the anti-social behaviour data breach with Scottish Housing Regulator. It was not upheld.
Police Scotland
I contacted Police Scotland, they visited our home and were provided with the relevant documents. Whilst I awaited their advice I tried again to obtain detail, evidence and retention information from North Lanarkshire Council.
Second breach – full report disclosure from anti-social behaviour system
l submitted yet another Subject Access Request and on 4 October 2024 North Lanarkshire Council responded, with a second breach. The first breach was database screenshots, partial information, this time council disclosed all of the information held, the full anti-social behaviour report. Whilst the redactions of a personal and sensitive nature were now, mostly complete, this format revealed further serious allegations and other comments recorded in discussion with the complainant at an interview. We had no right to see the contents of that discussion and the further allegations mentioned were not recorded as complaints by council.
There was no response to my queries on evidence or retention and council had posted the report despite my requesting email response to prevent further disclosures.
The breach was reported to North Lanarkshire Council and they stated that we had “… indeed been provided with more information than you were entitled to”.
The council requested the report be destroyed but they were advised it would be handed to Police Scotland. Subsequently, the council did then answer, in part, the retention and evidence queries.
The breach and retention responses have been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office. We await their response and guidance as well as that of Police Scotland before reporting further on this never-ending journey.
North Lanarkshire Council was offered a right of reply, and their response was “We have complied fully with all thorough investigations by relevant bodies and we have acted reasonably throughout. We have no further comment to make.”
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