Freedom of information requests

No of land & spending on maintaing the property estate

Questions

1. The estimated total number of acres of land that you own.
2. The estimated total number of acres that you own which are not in operational use.
3. The annual spending on managing and maintaining your property estate in the financial year 2022/23. Please provide a breakdown.
4. The number of empty homes you currently own.
5. The number of empty buildings you currently own that are not homes.
6. Please provide a copy of your asset register.

Response

1. 139 Acres
2. None
3. Annual spending on managing and maintaining the property estate in 2022/23 are £80,515,00. 

   Type	Annual Cost £’000
   IT (hardware, licences, leases, printing, systems)	24,569
   Estates (maintenance, grounds, security, etc.)	9,735
   Rent & Rates	13,399
   Waste (and decontamination)	5,408
   Energy (and water / utilities)	24,889
   Modular wards lease and other	2,514
   Total	80,515

4. None
5. In terms of buildings, 1% of current buildings are classed as empty, this tends to be parts of buildings rather than a specific whole empty building.
6. Exempt under S43 of FOIA (read below)

The Trust does hold an Asset Register however, we are withholding this information, under exemption 43 (commercial interests) of the Freedom of Information Act: The Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).

Section 43(2) (Commercial Interests)

The Trust considers the Asset Register is commercially sensitive in nature. This information could be used by competitors to gain a significant unfair advantage when products are put out to re-tender.

Section 43(2) is a qualified exemption and is subject to the public interest test. This means that not only does the information have to prejudice one of the purposes listed, but before the information can be withheld, the public interest in preventing that prejudice must outweigh the public interest in disclosure.

Public Interest Test

Considerations in favour of disclosure:

• The public need to know that we are spending public money wisely and getting best value, without fear or favour.
• The need for public authorities to be transparent in their dealings.

Considerations against disclosure:

• Disclosing this information would likely give the provider organisations competitors a significant unfair advantage during re-procurement of the products.
• It could weaken the Trust’s position as potential companies would not have confidence that the Trust would keep sensitive financial data private.
• This could prejudice the Trust’s ability to obtain best price and value.
• It could reduce pricing innovation in tendering parties’ bids when the service is put out for re-procurement.
• The inherent public interest in avoiding prejudice to the provider organisation and the Trust.
• Releasing the information in Schedule 3(a) would likely result in prejudice to the commercial interests of the provider organisation.

 

Conclusion

The Trust recognises that there is a public interest in the disclosure of information which facilitates the accountability and transparency of public bodies for decisions taken by them. However, there is also a public interest in the Trust being able to work within competitive markets where that results in a financial or resource benefit which is put to the wider public interest. Having undertaken the balancing exercise, the Trust has concluded that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the requested information having regard to the effect that the disclosure of the information would not be in the public interest.

Given that the definition of ‘public’ under the Act is considered to be the public at large, rather than just the individual applicant or a small group of people and that ‘public interest’ is not necessarily the same as what interests the public, it is considered that to release this sensitive information into the public domain is likely to result in prejudice to the commercial interests of both the Trust and the supplier organisation which is not outweighed by the wider public interest for disclosure.