Tribunal tells council to disclose information on major regeneration scheme

The First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) has told Southwark council that it must disclose most of the information on its dealings with a developer on a controversial major regeneration scheme.

Its ruling concerns Southwark’s partnership with Lend Lease to redevelop the Heygate estate at Elephant and Castle in south London.

But the tribunal said that Lend Lease need not disclose a financial model that it uses to assess the viability of projects.

This was a 'trade secret’ and would do the company damage were it available to competitors, the tribunal said.

The case began when local resident Adrian Glasspool made Freedom of Information requests to try to find out why the redevelopment would have only 25% of its housing earmarked as ‘affordable’ rather than the 35% originally proposed.

Southwark refused to disclose this and Mr Glasspool went to the Information Commissioner, who said the material should be published.

Both the council and Lend Lease then appealed against this to the tribunal.

It said that Lend Lease’s model and its dealings with other businesses over the regeneration scheme were also properly confidential, but that agreements with social housing groups and private individuals buying properties were not.

All other information sought by Mr Glasspool should be disclosed, it said.

The tribunal has given Southwark and Lend Lease 28 days to decide which disclosures should be made and to agree this with the commissioner.

If no agreement can be reached the tribunal would reconvene to decide the question.

A Southwark spokesperson said: “Without some commercially sensitive information remaining private, developers could simply refuse to work with councils, leaving boroughs without the housing and regeneration we all need. That doesn't benefit anyone, and we are pleased that the tribunal has recognised this.

“In terms of the information required to be disclosed, we are looking at the practical implications of this before deciding on our next steps.”

Mark Smulian