Privacy Notice

The Data Controller for Ermine Street Housing  is: South Cambs Ltd , South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge CB23 6EA. The Data Protection Officer is Duncan Vessey, Head of Ermine Street Housing  and he can be contacted at South Cambs Ltd., South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA, by email duncan.vessey@scambs.gov.uk or telephone on 01954 713139.

Ermine Street Housing is a trading name of South Cambs Ltd., and South Cambs Ltd is a company solely owned by South Cambridgeshire District Council. The company acquires homes on the open market and leases   homes from other landlords to rent in the private rented sector. Income   generated by this activity is used to fund Council services.

 What information we collect and why:

We collect and process your information to provide a housing service to you and to manage your tenancy. The tenancy agreement is a legal contract between us and you and this means we must hold and process some information about you. This will include relevant checks we undertake with other organisations, such as credit reference agencies, and information given to third parties such as maintenance contractors to ensure the property is well maintained. This information is held in paper form; the forms you complete, and as electronic data in systems relevant to our service.

The information required is set out in the registration form that you are required to complete, along with your communication preferences. If you have any questions about this, please ask a member of the team.

Who has access to the information?

The Ermine Street Housing team will manage and protect this information and share it with other organisations as required. Your consent will be requested to share any information to services that do not fall within our legal obligations, but may be of interest or of use to you.* (see opt out section below)

Aside from our legal obligations we do not send your data to any external party without your agreement.

How long is my information kept?

In general most housing records are held for 6 years after the file is closed, for example, after the end of a tenancy the file will be closed   and  kept for a minimum of 6 years, some files are held for longer, e.g. 12 – 15 years if there are legal matters involved. Please ask if you would like more information.

We don't as a matter of course maintain a waiting list, but occasionally we will keep information on file for those people who have expressed an interest in being our tenants. This information is reviewed monthly; if we do not hear from you to confirm you wish to remain on our waiting list in the time period specified, we will remove your details from the list and the information will be destroyed.

Your rights:

You have the right to have incorrect information corrected, please let us know of any changes to your details, especially your contact details, as it is your responsibility to ensure they are correct. The team can be contacted here: contact@erminestreethousing.co.uk or telephone 01954 713099.

You can change your communication options and/or *opt out of communications with external organisations at any time; please contact the team, as above. Please be aware that if you choose to limit the contact other agencies can have with you, this may impact on your ability to receive a service.

You have the right to have a copy of what information is held about you; this is called a ‘Subject Access Request’ (SAR). We hope that any queries you may have can be dealt with informally with the Ermine Street Housing team, and that it is clear what is held about you and why in our forms and information.   

If you would like to make a formal SAR, please write to Ermine Street Housing, South Cambridgeshire Hall, Cambourne Business Park, Cambourne, Cambridge, CB23 6EA or email contact@erminestreethousing.co.uk

If you have any queries or concerns please contact the  Ermine Street Housing Team directly in the first instance contact@erminestreethousing.co.uk  alternatively you can contact the Data Protection Officer, details as above, or make a complaint via our complaints process. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner who oversees Data Protection and Freedom of Information, information about what they do and how to contact them can be found here: www.ico.gov.uk

This page was last updated: 26/08/2021.