Privacy Notice and
Data Protection

Salix Homes collects and processes information about colleagues, Board Members, and customers to fulfil our legal obligations as an employer and landlord. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Name and address.
• Contact details.
• Dates of birth for you and, if a customer, any others who live in your household.
• Information about your requirements dependant on the relationship you have with Salix Homes i.e. employer/employee, tenant/landlord etc.
• Financial details.

We may also collect personal information which includes details about your ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and any medical conditions.

We understand that you may not feel comfortable answering some of these questions and consider them to be private. We ask these questions to make sure that we do not discriminate against any of our customers, colleagues, or Board members.

Understanding the diversity of our customers, colleagues and Board members is very important to us, although we understand that you may feel uncomfortable providing this information and so you can refuse.

We primarily collect this information to:

• manage the relationship you have with Salix Homes.
• monitor compliance with the terms of the agreement/contract that is held.
• deliver support, where required
• conduct surveys to monitor and improve our services; and
  • monitor equality and diversity
  • prevent fraud, ensure safety and security of persons and property.

All calls made to our Contact Centre and our Communities Directorate (e.g. a Housing Officer or an Income Officer) are recorded for management, quality, and accuracy purposes. All recorded calls are held within a UK based secure cloud for a maximum period of 12 months. The call recordings can only be accessed by a restricted group of colleagues within the business for security purposes.

Information in the main is held on our computer systems and some paper files. All of our computer systems and files have restricted access, which means that only the colleagues who need to see that type of information can see it.

Salix Homes uses software and storage that is based within the UK. If information is transferred outside the UK, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

Our network and infrastructure are protected by industry-leading and globally recognised firewalls.

We also use reputable antivirus and endpoint protection software to block executable files from running from removable media such as CD-ROMs, external hard drives, and USB drives.

Our websites use HTTPS as standard, and we regularly monitor our systems for vulnerabilities and breaches.

Our infrastructure provider conducts independent penetration testing of their network regularly to identify any vulnerabilities.

Salix Homes has a Data Retention Schedule for the data that we collect which may contain personal information.

The Data Retention Schedule lists the principal documentation that Registered Providers of social housing such as Salix Homes should keep, together with details of the statutory and recommended retention periods. The Data Retention Schedule is based on the model schedule as developed by the National Housing Federation (NHF), and notes that it may be appropriate to keep documents for longer than the minimum period laid down by law.

Once information has passed its retention deadline, it will be deleted. There are some instances with the software we use that mean we cannot delete the information, as the software does not allow us to do so. When this happens, your personal information will be anonymised or pseudonymised on the system and archived. In some circumstances, our ICT Team are able to delete your information using scripting tools.

Examples of retention periods:

• Housing applications: up to 2 years after unsuccessful application
• Tenancy records: typically, 6 years after tenancy ends
• Financial records: 6 years or longer where legally required
• CCTV footage: usually 28 days unless required for investigation
• Complaint records: 6 years after the length of the tenancy

Information held about you is for the purpose of managing the relationship with you.

There may, however, be occasions when we must share information with others to enable us to deliver our services and fulfil our legal and contractual obligations.

Examples include:

• in relation to customer repairs, rents and or benefit requirements.
• for statistical purposes.
• in relation to member and colleague remuneration and tax purposes.
• for legislative and regulatory purposes.
• for tailoring support to individuals.
• for the safeguarding of vulnerable adults and children.

Please read our full Privacy Statement for more details.