Privacy notice
Amplius is committed to handling your information securely and safeguarding your rights to confidentiality. We will ensure your personal information is processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), to promote accountability and transparency.
Amplius is a data controller and processor for the purposes of Data Protection legislation. This means that we are responsible for deciding the purpose of collecting and using information. As a processor, we also use the information in line with why we collected it as part of our everyday work.
We provide housing, housing related services, care and support services.
This privacy notice explains what we do generally and applies to housing applicants, customers, tenants, shared owners, leaseholders, care and support customers, contractors, suppliers and anyone who engages with us.
We have a section on your rights and how you can contact us to exercise those rights.
The legislation covers “personal data” which is information that directly or indirectly identifies a person.
This could mean:
· Name
· Address
· Email address.
· National Insurance number
· Date of birth
Some personal data is called special categories of data. These include types of information like ethnicity, religion and health.
Information about Household members
When you provide information about household members, we assume that you do so with their full knowledge This information is requested as part of your tenancy and it is in our legitimate interests to know who will be living in our premises.
Amplius collects children’s information only as necessary. For instance, you provide children’s information because they are part of your household or where we are providing activity schemes.
We only collect children’s information with appropriate parental or guardian consent.
We collect your personal data to in order to be able to provide our services to you. Each service has its own requirements.
We only ask you to provide the information that we need to provide you with that service.
For instance, we need your information to:
· evaluate your application for a tenancy/lease or license.
· enter into a tenancy with you.
· provide services relating to your housing needs.
In addition, we may collect your information to:
· provide our care and support services.
· comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
We will:
· Only ask for information if we have legitimate grounds to do so.
· Explain why we are asking for that information.
· Only ask for the information we need.
· Keep accurate and up to date information.
· Only keep information for as long as it is needed.
· Ensure that we take appropriate steps to keep your information secure.
· Ensure all staff who have access to information about you will have received training on data protection and information security.
The types of information we hold include but are not limited to the following:
· Name
· Address, including previous and forwarding addresses.
· Contact information including email address.
· Gender
· Date of birth
· Photographic ID
· Credit history.
· Employment details
· National insurance number for example to carry out to carry out functions such as universal credit and/or supporting people contracts.
· Bank details,
· Income and state benefits
· Criminal activities including anti-social behaviour
· Information about your family, lifestyle and social circumstances
· Marital status
· Details about your representatives or next of kin
CCTV footage and when worn body worn video recordings to assist with personal security and crime prevention if you visit an office, estate or communal area which is covered by this facility.
Audio recordings – in an emergency where a colleague is at risk of harm or abuse.
Telephone Call recording.
Household Members
Sensitive personal data is information that requires extra protection.
This includes but is not limited to:
· your racial or ethnic background
· sexual orientation
· health information
· religious or philosophical beliefs
· trade union membership
· criminal convictions or offences
We only process sensitive personal data when it is necessary, and we follow strict rules to protect your privacy.
We may process this information if:
· We are legally required to (e.g., to protect vulnerable people).
· It is necessary to protect life or safety (e.g., during a medical emergency).
· It serves the public interest (e.g., to ensure fair access to services).
· It is needed to prevent or detect crime.
· It is required for insurance purposes.
· You have explicitly agreed to it (e.g. under a contract or agreement with us)
· We are under contractual necessity e.g. commissioner’s contracts.
We may also use sensitive data to:
· monitor equality, diversity, and inclusion in our services.
· ensure we deliver services fairly and appropriately.
It will depend on the service; however, the starting point will normally be yourself or someone acting on your behalf.
We may also receive information from other organisations who we work with to deliver a service. Information may be shared with us by your local authority or other government agencies.
We may receive information about you from third parties for example a previous landlord, other professional bodies, the police, energy providers, the Home Office to confirm your immigration status or repairs our contractors.
Your personal data is gathered if you use our web forms.
It will depend on what service you receive but this may include but is not limited to:
· Local authorities
· Health and social care
· Our third-party contractors
· Police
We may share your personal information with specific third parties to provide services effectively.
Example of who we may share information with and why:
Third Party Service providers e.g. repair contractors or for lettings
Suppliers and service providers: We work with other companies and organisations, such as contractors, agents, marketing agencies, and platform providers, to help deliver our services to you or to support our work. For more details about the types of suppliers we use, please see Appendix 1.
We only share your information where required by our contract or to ensure properties are managed efficiently and safely.
We may also share information needed to manage our buildings effectively, including for health and safety purposes.
If a property is jointly managed with another landlord or managing agent, we may share relevant information with them when necessary.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
We provide information on social housing lettings to MHCLG as required by the regulator’s Tenancy Standard. This data, is used for research and statistical purposes, includes details such as tenancy type, rents, and demographic information.
It does not include names or addresses. Sharing this information supports public interest tasks, and individuals cannot opt out. For more information click here Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – GOV.UK .
Department of Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) and its Consortium partners TrustMark Research and Innovation (TRI)
We share information with the Department of Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) and its Consortium partner, TrustMark Research and Innovation (TRI), to monitor the performance of energy improvements in social housing, as required by the funding we receive.
This involves monthly reports provided to DESNZ under the public task legal basis. TRI may also collect information related to publicly funded works and may contact you to obtain informed consent if needed. For more details Department for Energy Security and Net Zero – GOV.UK.
Experian and the Rental Exchange Programme
As part of the Rental Exchange Programme and with your consent we share your rental payment history with Experian.
This programme allows tenants with a history of little or no credit, who are paying their rent on a regular basis, to build up a credit score. You can opt out of the Rental Exchange Programme at any time by contacting us.
Please see the contact us section of our website for details of how to get in touch.
If you would like more information, you can visit www.experian.co.uk/rental-exchange and click here to see the Credit Reference Agency Information Notice (CRAIN) | Experian
Credit reference and Fraud prevention agencies.
We use information with the following for credit referencing and scoring:
· Experian Limited
If requested, we share information with the following for fraud prevention:
· Local Authorities.
· Department for Work and Pensions.
Other Authorised Sharing
Parties we may share your information with includes but is not limited to:
· Housing Ombudsman: during regulatory audits and assessments.
· Local Authorities and Safeguarding Bodies: For council tax, benefits, or welfare purposes.
· Police and Law Enforcement: To prevent and detect crime.
· Utility Companies: To provide your utility services and contact you regarding charges.
· MPs and Councillors: When they act on your behalf.
· Legal and Professional Advisers: For our legal matters.
· Courts and Court-Related Parties: In response to a Court Order.
· Mailing companies.
We have in place a variety of technical and organisational security measures designed to protect your personal data and prevent unauthorised access to use or disclose it.
For example, we limit access to your information to only those who need it and are authorised to view it. When we share your data with contractors, suppliers, or partners, we have strict contracts in place to ensure they handle your information securely and keep it confidential.
To help protect your information, we will ask you, or anyone representing you, security questions to confirm your identity when you call us—or when we call you.
We won’t discuss your information with anyone else unless:
· The law requires or permits it,
· You have given us written permission,
· There is a legal deputy or Power of Attorney, or
· You give us a clear, one-time verbal instruction.
You have the right to request access to personal information we may hold about you by making a Subject Access Request application. If you would like to do this you can complete the Amplius formerly known as Grand Union Housing Association subject access request form or for Amplius formerly known as Longhurst Group email to [email protected].
When you make a request, we will comply with it within one calendar month. If we cannot or need to extend this timescale by a further two months, we will let you know.
Right to be informed: You have the right to be informed in this privacy notice we tell you who we are, why we collect your information, how we use it, who we may share it with and how long we keep the information for. For further information please see https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-be-informed-if-your-personal-data-is-being-used/
Right of Access: You have the right of access to the information we hold about you. In some cases, we may limit access if it concerns the rights of others or if there is a lawful reason to withhold certain details. For further information please see https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/getting-copies-of-your-information-subject-access-request/
Right to Rectification (also known as correction): If any of your information is inaccurate or incomplete, you can ask us to correct it to ensure accuracy. For further information please see https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-get-your-data-corrected/
Right to Erasure (also known as the right to be forgotten): You may request that we delete your personal data This is not an absolute right. We will assess your request and in some circumstances your information may need to be kept. For further information please see https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-get-your-data-deleted/
Right to Restriction: This right gives you the ability to limit how we use your personal data in some circumstances. Our lawful bases for processing may affect how and whether this right applies. For further information please see https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-limit-how-organisations-use-your-data/
Right to Data Portability: In certain circumstances, you can ask us to transfer your data to another party of your choosing. The right to data portability is subject to the lawful basis for processing and is typically applicable when processing is based on consent or contractual necessity. For further information please see https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-data-portability/
Right not to be subject to automated decision making:
We do not undertake automatic decision making.
You have the right to object to how we process your personal data. This means that you can stop or prevent us from using your personal data in certain limited circumstances. For more information please see https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/the-right-to-object-to-the-use-of-your-data/
Where you have given us your consent to use your information, you have the right to change your mind and withdraw your consent. Withdrawal of your consent won’t affect any processing we have done before the withdrawal but may limit our ability to continue providing you with certain services. To withdraw your consent please email us at [email protected]
We use your information so that you receive, and we provide the range of housing, care, support and training services we offer and so that we can continue to provide these services whilst you are a customer with us.
We also use your information for the following reasons:
Manage applications made by you
Manage your tenancy, lease or other services you have engaged with
Fulfil our legal obligations
Meet your needs in our service delivery
Plan, develop and improve our products and services
Prevent fraud and illegal sub-letting.
To contact you in regard to your request
To prevent and detect crime, resolve disputes, and promote safety and the quiet enjoyment of our neighbourhoods and communities. To understand how we are performing we undertake call recording in some of our service areas for training and quality monitoring purposes. We also hold records of any contact we have with you and any contact from third parties representing you.
We may contact you for market research purposes and customer satisfaction surveys to help monitor performance and improve our services.
Information may be used for market/customer research, analysis and developing statistics and we may supply data to third party contractors to deliver services on our behalf for this purpose.
To understand how we are performing we undertake call recording in some of our service areas for training and quality monitoring purposes. We also hold records of any contact we have with you and any contact from third parties representing you.
The lawful basis we rely on for our different processing activities are included but are not limited to the categories set out in the following table.
| Customers | Lawful Basis for Processing |
| Sales | Our legitimate interest in managing our business sales services. Contract: necessary to enter into a contract with you. |
| Care, Support and Housing | Our legitimate interests in supporting our customers with care and support, tenancies, leasehold, sales, repairs, and other enquiries, and in communicating with our suppliers regarding the products and services they offer. Contract necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations. Our legitimate interest in running our business, we share potential customer, supplier and existing customer details with the Department of Work and Pensions and relevant local authorities’ Housing Benefit and Council Tax departments for fraud prevention. |
| Application – to assess your eligibility for a tenancy/lease, or other service | Contract: performance or preparation to perform a contract with you. |
| To enter into a tenancy/lease/licence or other agreement | Contract: necessary to perform a contract with you. |
| Care and Support and Out of Hours Care and Support | Contract: necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations Legitimate interest to provide our care and support services and appoint out of hours support service providers. |
| To manage anti-social behaviour and safeguarding issues of colleagues, tenants, leaseholders, customers and members of the public | Contract: performance or preparation to perform a contract with you and legitimate interests. |
| Safeguarding | Legal Obligation: to safeguard you and our staff. Vital Interests: to protect you or our staff |
| Repair and Maintenance | Contract: necessary to carry out our contract with you. Our legitimate interest in providing our services contracting with various third-party repairs and maintenance providers. |
| Support / Hardship Fund services | Consent: your explicit consent Our legitimate interest in contracting with various third parties for example, carpets, white good suppliers to purchase and deliver goods. |
| Emergency alarm | Contract: necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations with you. |
| Marketing | Our legitimate interest in promoting our business, our brand, our properties and services. |
| Planning and managing events | Our legitimate interest in promoting our business, our brand and our properties, products, and services. |
| Protect Health and Safety | Legal obligations: to protect, and to the extent that our activities go beyond the strict requirements of applicable law. Legitimate interest: in ensuring the safety of all individuals attending our offices or properties. Vital interests: exceptionally; your, or another individual’s. |
| Security and Safety | Legitimate interest: in ensuring the security of you and our staff, CCTV monitoring services, lone working monitoring services and body worn video monitoring services. |
| Compliance with legal & regulatory obligations | Legal obligation: to comply with applicable law. Legitimate interest: if we feel we need to do more than required under our legal obligations. |
| General business obligations | Legal obligations: To comply with applicable law. Legitimate interests: in operating the administrative and technical aspects of our business efficiently and effectively and in compliance with applicable law and regulation. |
| Emergency Contacts: To contact in an emergency | Consent: your explicit consent. Legitimate interest: contacting your appointed individuals in the event of a serious incident affecting you. |
| Website and information security | Legitimate interest: in ensuring the security of our website(s) and all information processed by such website(s). |
| Website cookies | Legitimate Interest: to better tailor what we provide online. |
| To support equality, diversity and inclusion in our communities; for fairness and equality in our services. | Consent: your explicit consent |
| Payment systems | Contract: necessity to perform our services Legitimate interest in managing our business. |
We will only keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements and in accordance with our retention and disposal guidelines.
If you would like further information, please contact our Data Protection Team at [email protected].
We will not transfer or store your personal information outside of the United Kingdom unless:
· the country that we send the information to is approved by the Information Commissioner’s Office as providing an adequate level of protection for personal information; or
· the recipient has agreed with us standard contractual clauses approved by the Information Commissioner’s Office, obliging the recipient to safeguard the personal information; or
· another situation exists where the transfer is permitted under applicable data protection legislation.
We contract with Mailchimp for market research services which is based in the USA.
For further information you can contact our Data Protection Team at:
Data Protection Team
Amplius Living
K2
Timbold Drive
Kents Hill
Milton Keynes
MK7 6BZ
Or email [email protected]
For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. Details can be found on their website ttps://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/contact-us-public/ or contact them on 0303 123 1113
If you have concerns about how we handle your data, please contact us so we can address them. We are committed to upholding your rights and addressing any data protection concerns promptly.
If you are unsatisfied with our response, you can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:
· Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
· Phone: 0303 123 1113
Recorded Telephone Calls
We only retain recording for 90 days.
CCTV
We overwrite CCTV footage every 30 days.
We keep this privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 16/12/2024.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Categories of providers
The categories of providers include but are not limited to the categories set out in the following table.
| Recipient/relationship to us | Industry sector (and sub-sector) |
| Accountancy services | Professional services (accountancy) |
| Real estate | Real estate holding and development house sales, rental & leasing services |
| Local Government | Local authorities |
| Customer services – for Care & Support | Care and Support services |
| Health and Safety | Health and Safety services |
| Banks, payment processors and financial services providers | Financial (banking) |
| Cloud storage providers | IT (cloud services) |
| Financial auditing services | Audit (financial) |
| Goods based service providers | Retail |
| Government tax administration offices | Government (tax) |
| Website analytics provider (Google Analytics) | IT (website analytics) |
| Insurance services – for claims | Insurance (underwriting) |
| IT support service providers | IT (support and maintenance) |
| Legal advisers | Professional services (legal services) |
| Security | On-site security access control services Emergency alarm CCTV monitoring services |
| Telecommunications | Telecommunications equipment |
| Telecommunications | Telecommunications service providers |
| Emergency care line providers | Emergency care line providers |
| Credit reference agencies | Credit reference agencies |
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