This Privacy Notice is regularly reviewed and may be updated or revised at any time. It was last updated in November 2025. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes.
- Introduction
- What personal data do we collect?
- How we use personal data
- Legal Basis for processing
- Who do we share personal data with?
- How long do we keep personal data?
- Automated decisions
- Your rights
- Data Protection Officer.
Introduction
Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the Wigan Council Primary Privacy Notice.
This notice provides additional privacy information for council and social housing.
What personal data do we collect?
To carry out activities and obligations as a Council and Social Housing Service we process the following personal data:
- Name
- Address
- Telephone number
- Email address
- Date of birth
- Gender
- Marital status
- Civil partnerships
- Bank account details, payroll and tax/national insurance information
- Survey responses.
We also process the following special category data:
- Race/ethnicity
- Religious beliefs
- Sexual orientation
- Health-related data.
We also process the following Criminal Offence Data: Offences (including alleged offences), criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences.
How we use personal data
The main purposes for processing your personal data are:
- To enable us to meet our statutory and legal duties relating to social housing and homelessness
- To provide advice on housing options available to you
- To enable us to provide you with accommodation
- To provide advice about services to meet your needs
- Managing your account charges and payments including arrears and welfare advice and to apply the Breathing Space scheme (where applicable)
- Managing the repairs, maintenance and adaptations of our properties
- To ensure that tenancy conditions are complied with such as dealing with anti-social behaviour or fraud
- We also conduct research and analysis to help improve services and evaluate performance. Where possible this is anonymised
- We also conduct surveys in relation to services in order to gauge satisfaction and improve services
- To assess your suitability to become a Tenant Panel Member
- To provide sheltered accommodation and out of hours support to residents in sheltered accommodation and extra care.
Legal Basis for processing
The lawful basis we rely on for processing your personal data is:
- It is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or in the exercise of our official authority
- It is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation
- It is necessary for us to perform obligations under a contract
- You have given consent.
For tasks in the public interest or in exercise of official authority or for complying with a legal obligation, the legal gateways include, but are not limited to:
- Housing Act 1996
- Homelessness Act 2002
- Localism Act 2011
- Homelessness Reduction Act 2017
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
The condition we rely on for processing your special category data and criminal data is: Reasons of substantial public interest: statutory and government purposes.
Who do we share personal data with?
In addition to the general reasons for data sharing described in the Council’s Primary Privacy Notice, we share data with and collect data from the following when required:
- Other teams within Wigan Council including, but not limited to, Legal Services, Adults’ and Children’s Social Care
- Government departments and agencies including, but not limited to, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Regulator of Social Housing
- Housing Ombudsman
- Police
- Probation
- Health and social care organisations
- Fire and Rescue Service
- Registered social landlords
- Providers of temporary accommodation
- Voluntary organisations
- Other local authorities, including GMCA
- Building and maintenance contractors
- With your consent, other organisations delivering initiatives that have the potential to reduce energy bills
- With your consent, Medequip, who provide out of hours support to residents in sheltered accommodation.
The Council is also now required to share information about you and your debts with your debt advisor or the Insolvency Service where you are registered with the Breathing Space (external link) scheme.
This is not an exhaustive list.
How long do we keep personal data?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any future legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
We must continue to retain necessary data in accordance with our corporate records policy to fulfil legal, statutory and regulatory requirements.
Automated decisions
All the decisions we make about you involve human interaction.
Your rights
More information on how to seek advice to exercise your rights, raise a concern or complain about the handling of your personal data by the council can be found in at Wigan Council Primary Privacy Notice.
Data Protection Officer
If you wish to raise a concern or seek clarification about any aspect of this notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer. Please provide documents to prove your identity along with a description of your concern.
We will respond to all requests within one month.
If you are unhappy with the way that we handle your concern you may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (external link).
Document information
Owner: Kathryn Perry, Assistant Director Housing Services
Authors: Lauren Crews, Service Manager Tenancy Management, Joanne Grundy, Service Manager, Repairs Maintenance and Customer Experience David Gray, Service Manager Crisis Prevention and Intervention
Version and date: V6.0 November 2025