Cheltenham Borough Council commissions this service to Cheltenham Borough Homes Ltd (CBH). This means that the Council is the Data Controller and CBH is the Data Processor of personal information collected and managed for the Housing Options service.

We welcome any queries you may have about how we use your personal data, or any information we hold about you. Please contact us at the address above or email us at: businesssupport@cbh.org

MHCLG Privacy Notice
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) wants to learn more about the help provided to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. The MHCLG wants to use the information you provide to help improve the service. For more information read the following:

MHCLG Privacy Information Leaflet (526 KiB)

MHCLG Privacy Notice 2018 (248 KiB)

Your name and contact details, your gender, information about your physical and mental health, information relating to dependents, your financial circumstances (including income, expenditure and debt) and benefits situation.

We may not be able to provide full services and support without this information.

We collect personal data in a number of ways, including, but not limited to:

• when someone applies for a home, directly through our Housing Options Team or through the local choice-based lettings scheme (currently HomeseekerPlus)
  • when you apply to become a tenant we request and retain any references necessary to assess your application. This may include (but is not limited to), information from other housing providers, the Police, the Probation Service, support services, Social Services, and health services where appropriate
• when someone presents themselves as homeless or requires housing advice, either directly through our Housing Options Team or via the Housing Assistance Referral Portal
• when providing people who are not tenants of CBH-managed homes with benefit and money advice

We are collecting information about you in order that we may: manage housing allocations, provide housing advice and homelessness services to ensure that you are eligible for social housing and that any accommodation you may be offered will be suitable for you or your family needs. We also need certain personal data in order to provide benefit and money advice, with your consent. Without this data we may not be able to provide you with these services.

 Why can we use personal data?
Data Protection Law sets out lawful bases for the processing of this information. In this instance the lawful bases are:

• Consent: you have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose
• Public task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and this task or function has a clear basis in law

We are also collecting ‘special category’ personal data. We meet the following condition/s which allows us to do this:

processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject

We may need to share your information with third parties to provide this service to you, this may include other agencies, or organisations who can help to support you including, Local Authorities, the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Social Services, other housing providers and support agencies when we believe that it is in your or the public’s interest to do so, or is required by law, or where it is necessary to do so for the prevention and detection of crime.

We may need to share your information with third parties to provide these services to you or when we believe that it is in the public’s interest to do so. This may also be necessary if required by law or where it is necessary for the prevention and detection of crime. Examples of third parties may include: Local Authorities, the Housing Benefit Department, DWP, HMR&C, the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Job Centres, Social Services, the Home Office, Immigration Control, other housing providers and support agencies.

Where we share personal data it is always carried out securely and with clear guidelines as to what is being shared, why, with whom, and for how long.

Your data will be managed through online systems – HomeseekerPlus for housing applications or the Housing Assistance Referral Portal for homelessness issues. It will be kept securely, protected by physical and electronic means. Data enabling benefit and money advice is managed locally in IT systems that are securely protected by physical and electronic means. Should it be accessed using mobile devices, these are encrypted and are capable of being wiped clean of all data remotely. Servers used for delivering IT systems are within the European Economic Area (EEA).

Information relating to homelessness or housing applications will be kept for up to 3 years following a decision being made or a successful application. Information relating to either that has been withdrawn or removed will be kept for up to 6months. After this it will be securely destroyed. Information relating to benefit and money advice will be kept for up to one year before it is securely destroyed.

Data Protection law includes certain rights for individuals. In this instance you have the following rights:

• The right to be informed – this is why we have provided you with this privacy notice
• The right of access – you have the right to access the personal data we hold about you so you can be aware and verify the lawfulness of its use
• The right to rectification – you are entitled to have your personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete
• The right to erasure – you have the right to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason which allows us to continue using it

The right to data portability – this allows you to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services

If you have a concern about the way in which we are handling your personal data then please contact us. In the first instance please write to: Cheltenham Borough Homes Ltd, Business Support team, Hester’s Way Community Resource Centre, Cassin Drive, Cheltenham GL51 7SU or email businesssupport@cbh.org

We will take your concern seriously and work with you to try to resolve it.

If you are not satisfied with our response you can raise the matter with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) via their website or call their helpline on 0303 123 1113.

This privacy notice will be updated to reflect changes either to the way in which we operate or changes to the data protection legislation. To make sure that you keep up to date, we suggest that you revisit this notice from time to time. A more detailed Privacy Notice covering all the above and more can be found on our website.

We welcome any queries you may have regarding this Privacy Notice, or any information we hold about you. Please contact us at the address above or email us at: businesssupport@cbh.org