Privacy Notice
North Yorkshire Home Choice
Privacy Notice
Who We Are
North Yorkshire Home Choice is a choice-based lettings Partnership of North Yorkshire Council and Registered Social Landlords who provide social and affordable housing for rent in the wider area of North Yorkshire. This includes the former local authority Areas of Craven, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Hambleton, Harrogate, Scarborough and Selby.
NYHC is a partnership agreement and organisations are each data controllers.
What We Do
We operate a single shared social housing register and allocations policy in the former local authority areas of Craven, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Hambleton, Harrogate, Scarborough and Selby.
What is choice based letting and how does it work
Choice based letting is a scheme which allows an applicant to make a “bid” for a property advertised by local authorities and registered social housing providers available to rent. Applicants must have an active housing application to make a “bid”.
Generally, accommodation will be offered to the bidder with the highest priority under the allocations scheme and matches the lettings criteria for that property. Some properties may be allocated as a direct let or may be restricted to a specific need, such as an adapted property.
What Personal Information do we collect?
Personal Information is collected from the application form that is filled out by the applicant. This may include details of other household members.
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Names
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Address and Postcode
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Date of Birth
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Telephone number
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Email address
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Emergency contact details
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Gender
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National Insurance Number
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Ethnicity
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Housing and support needs – which may include special category data such as sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, and health information including medical, physical and mental history.
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Photographic identity documents such as driving licences, passports, visas and biometric residents permits.
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Information to assess eligibility for assistance such as visas, biometric residents permit, and immigration status.
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Address history for last 5 years including your current address.
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Proof of benefits including proof of dependent child including child benefits
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Financial information relating to income, assets, some debts.
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Addresses for the past 5 years
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Additional items such as references may be required.
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Criminal Records
Why do we collect your personal data
When you apply for social and affordable housing, we need you to provide information so that we can identify that:
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You are eligible for social and affordable housing.
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You qualify for housing under the allocations policy.
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What your housing need is
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What type and size of property would be most suitable to meet your housing need.
Who do we obtain your information from?
If you are an applicant your personal information will be obtained from you directly when you apply for social housing. If you are a household member of an applicant, they may provide your data as part of the application.
Who we share your information with
Your information is shared between the local authority and registered social landlords who administer, process and assess your application for social housing.
Your information may be shared with other registered social landlords or private landlords who let property through NYHC, and you make a bid on one of their advertised properties.
Participating Landlords are registered social landlords who have access to Abritas the allocations IT system, associated landlords are those registered social landlords who have nomination agreements to provide housing to a local authority.
We publish a list of full partners, participating and associated landlords on the North Yorkshire Home Choice website.
To fulfil your application NYHC may have to discuss elements of that application with relevant parties. E.g., If your application includes details of your criminal record, we may need to discuss your application with the police or probation services.
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and any successor legislation, we may be required to share information with 3rd party organisations such as the police and other statutory agencies for the purposes of preventing and detecting crime or for anti-fraud purposes.
Information can also be shared with your family, advocate or someone who represents you but only where you have asked us to do so.
How long do we keep your information for?
Your application and supporting information will be kept on the housing register until you are housed and then for a further 7 years.
Inactive or partially completed applications will be held for 7 years. We keep your data only for as long as necessary and it will be securely deleted.
Housing landlords or housing landlords where you bid on a property will publish their own privacy policy and retention periods.
What is the lawful basis for collecting this data?
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UK GDPR Article 6(e) – Public Task – the processing is necessary for the purposes of performing a task in the public interest or for your official functions. The processing is necessary for us to perform the task of administering the North Yorkshire Home Choice housing register and the local authority’s duty to allocate housing under part 6 Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Localism Act 2011)
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The information you provide as part of the housing application form may include special category data which could be health related. For example, if your current housing is unsuitable as it is impacting on medical and welfare grounds, or you need to move because of a disability or access need we may need this information to assess why your current home is unsuitable and how a move or an alternative property would be of benefit.
UK GDPR Article 9 (2) (b) – employment, social security and social protection. The processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data.
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This is supported by schedule 1, Part 2 (6) of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the following legal framework:
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The Equality Act 2010
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The Housing Acts 1985, 1988, 1996, 2002, 2004
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Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996
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Landlord and Tenant Act 1987
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Localism Act 2011
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Homelessness Reduction Act
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UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g) – the processing is necessary for the reasons of substantial public interest for the local authority’s duty to allocate housing under part 6 Housing Act 1996 (as amended by the Localism Act 2011).
This is supported schedule 1, Part 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018:
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(6) statutory and goverment purposes
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(18) safeguarding of children and individuals at risk
Criminal conviction – the processing of data relating to criminal convictions and offences.
This is supported by Article 10 – Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018:
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(10) preventing or detecting unlawful acts
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(18) safeguarding of children and individuals at risk
We are informed of your information when you submit an electronic application or when you sign a paper application form.
Your Rights
You have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data, you can ask to see copies of data held and ask for it to be corrected or deleted.
To find out about your rights under the data Protection Act 1998 (and any successor legislation) you can go to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, your rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, please contact us using our Partner contact details available on the North Yorkshire Home Choice website at www.northyorkshirehomechoice.org.uk
We may use your information to provide statistical and demographic information, for example the number of applicants on the housing register or the number of households that have been housed, the demand for a certain type of property to support future planning or to complete central government returns within social housing allocation (CORE data returns)
This information will be anonymised and will not identify any individual.
Version Control
• Published August 2016
• Reviewed May 2018
• Reviewed May 2021
• Reviewed May 2022
• Reviewed June 2023
•Reviewed April 2025
•Next Scheduled Review April 2027