Guidance

Privacy notice for the Section 106 Affordable Housing Clearing Service

Published 12 December 2024

Applies to England

1. About this notice

This privacy notice explains how we collect, use and protect your personal data, and also the rights you have with regards to that data.

This notice applies to the processing of your personal data for use of the Section 106 Affordable Housing Clearing Service only.

Refer to Homes England’s main privacy notice for further information on how we process personal data for other purposes.

1.1 Who is Homes England?

Homes England is the trading name adopted by the Homes and Communities Agency, our legal entity.

We are the data controller of the personal data processed. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we collect, use and store your personal data.

1.2 Information we collect

Homes England collects personal data about you when you register to use the Section 106 Affordable Housing Clearing Service. Someone else from your organisation may also register your information on your behalf.

We collect, store and use the following categories of personal data:

• name
• work email address
• job title
• work telephone number

1.3 How we process your information 

We use the personal data stated above for the following purposes:

• to create an account for you to use the Section 106 Affordable Housing Clearing Service
• to manage your access to the information contained within the tool
• to analyse available Section 106 affordable opportunities and appetite within the sector to inform future strategic and policy development
• to contact you about future opportunities for collaboration with Homes England we think you would be interested in, for example a new affordable housing fund
• to conduct surveys and market research about Homes England and the housing sector

1.4 What lawful basis do we have to process your personal data? 

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. This is called the lawful basis. Regarding the above purposes, we rely on the following lawful basis: 

• public task — processing your data is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us, for example, for one of our statutory functions

• legitimate Interests — Processing your data is necessary to support a legitimate interest we or another party has, only where this is not outweighed by your own interests

1.5 Who is the information shared with? 

We use service providers to provide this public consultation. When we use these service providers, it is necessary for us to share your personal data with them.

The main service providers and why they need your personal data are listed below:

Provider	Reason your data is shared
Microsoft	To provide the IT infrastructure to host the Section 106 Affordable Housing Clearing Service tool
Communications providers	To contact you about future opportunities, surveys and research you may be interested in

Sometimes, we may be legally obliged to provide copies of personal information to other organisations. For example, to provide information to the police, or to a public inquiry. We might not be always able to tell you that we have shared your information in this way, however we will ensure this is only shared in accordance with the law.

We may share analysis of the Section 106 Affordable Housing Clearing Service with Homes England’s sponsor Department, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

1.6 Where is your personal data stored and processed?  

All personal data is stored and processed by Homes England within offices in the UK and using systems that utilise data centres in the UK.

If one of our service providers ever processes data outside the UK, we will ensure this is only where we can ensure that your personal data is adequately protected.

1.7 How long do we keep your personal data?  

For the purposes of this Section 106 Affordable Housing Clearing Service Homes England will only retain your personal data for 6 months after the closure of the Section 106 Affordable Housing Clearing Service.

1.8 Your rights

Under data protection legislation, in certain circumstances you have the following rights over the processing of your personal data as described in this notice: 

• right of access to personal data
• right to correction or rectification
• right to request deletion
• right to data portability

Homes England must respond to a request to exercise these rights within one month. If you would like to submit a request, contact the Data Protection Officer. 

2. Data Protection Officer

The contact details for our Data Protection Officer are as follows: 

By post:

Data Protection Officer
Homes England
2nd Floor
The Lumen
St James’ Boulevard
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE4 5BZ

By email: DPO@homesengland.gov.uk

By phone: 0300 1234 500 

3. Complaints

If you are unhappy with any aspect of this privacy notice, or how your personal data is being processed, contact our Data Protection Officer. If you are still not happy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): 

By post:

Information Commissioner’s Office 
Wycliffe House 
Water Lane 
Wilmslow 
Cheshire 
SK9 5AF 

By email: icocasework@ico.org.uk

By phone: 0303 123 1113