FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4723
You asked
Please provide the actual house price statistics for house prices within the following post code IG8 0DS during the period 1990 to 2022.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Unfortunately, we are unable to model meaningful House Price data at postcode level due to the small amount of transactions that take place in any period. Therefore, if we were to produce this data, we would be releasing information that would not be high quality, valuable, or trust-worthy. This is contrary to the Code of Practice for Statistics and undermines our statutory function as a producer of official statistics. Therefore, this information is exempt under Section 36(2)(c) and (4) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. Whilst we appreciate arguments in favour of transparency about the data we hold, we must consider the public interest in maintaining the trust of the government and the public in us to produce reliable, good quality, official statistical information. If we were to produce data that is not accurate, valuable, or reliable, even on an ad hoc basis, this has the potential to undermine public confidence in the information we supply. Consequently, this runs the risk of the government and the public no longer relying on our statistical outputs to make well-informed decisions for the public good. On balance, the public interest falls in favour of withholding the requested information in this case.
However, you may find the Land Registry Price Paid dataset helpful for your purposes, as this will allow you to investigate what properties have been sold and at what price within a postcode (and when). Please note, this will not support an accurate measure of average house price. This dataset can be access via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/price-paid-data-downloads.