Green Homes: Maidstone event and survey privacy notice

Kent County Council (KCC) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice outlines how we look after your personal data, how you may exercise your rights and how the law protects you. This notice was last updated in July 2025 and pertains to homeowners and attendees (‘participants’) of the KCC Green Homes event in Bearsted, October 2025.

Who we are

KCC collects and is responsible for the appropriate use of certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information. KCC Environment and Circular Economy teams are working with Bearsted and Maidstone Climate Action Networks, Bearsted Parish Council and Boughton Monchelsea Parish Council (‘Project Partners’) to showcase energy efficient home improvements in Maidstone and how these benefit residents. The team are running an event in October 2025.

Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

When registering as a homeowner, to showcase your Low-Carbon Technology (LCT) or retrofit to visitors, we ask you to provide us with the following information:

• name
• contact details (email, option for mobile number)
• home address and postcode
• property type (semi-detached, for example)
• which low-carbon technology or retrofit measures you have installed.

When registering as an event attendee, to visit an open home, we ask you to provide us with the following information:

• name
• contact details (email, option for mobile number)
• if you will bring someone under 18 with you to the event
• if you are interested in visiting a local home with a heat pump on the day of the event, to see and hear the heat pump in action and discuss with the homeowner
• which low-carbon technology or retrofit measures you are interested in or have installed (optional)
• property type (semi-detached, for example - optional)
• tenure (owner-occupier, private rented etc. – optional).

How we use your personal information

We use your personal data to:

• contact you prior to the event date to confirm a meeting point and schedule
• ensure that we manage the maximum number of people attending the event, and confirm your identity
• contact you after the event with further information and an optional feedback survey to understand how the event may have impacted on your retrofit journey, and how we may improve future events (this will not subscribe registrants to a regular mailing list).

As outlined in the ‘Your rights’ section, below, you can ask us to delete information we hold about you at any time.

If you consent to us doing so, we will also use your personal data to:

• contact you with a 2nd follow-up survey, seven months after the event, to understand whether you have undertaken any energy efficiency home improvements or intend to do so.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We rely on Article 6(1a.) - the data subject has given clear consent as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal data.

The provision of your email address is required to enable us to manage the number of attendees; to contact you with information regarding home improvement options and to understand any home improvements you have made or plan to make after the event (through the initial feedback survey and/or the follow-up survey, subject to your consent, as described above.)

The provision of your name is required from you to enable us to confirm your identity when you attend one of our events.

The provision of your property type is optional, to help us understand trends in low carbon technology installations, for service improvement and potential future provisions. For example, running another similar event in Kent, or supporting large-scale retrofit projects.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will retain the contact details of registrants until the initial feedback survey and information is sent, or until registrants ask us to delete this.

If, in the feedback survey, you consent to being sent the follow-up survey 7 months later, we will hold your contact information until this follow-up survey is sent. This is to allow time for action regarding energy efficiency home improvements. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time during this 7-month period (please see the ‘Your rights’ section below.)

Anonymised data may be aggregated to inform a summary report of findings from both surveys, to inform service improvement and potential future projects. These findings will not be attributable to individuals and raw data will not be retained after the summary report is finalised. The summary report is likely to be published by December 2025, and likely to outline findings as follows:

‘X% of registrants lived in semi-detached housing. X% of respondents with this property type planned to install insulation after the event, with X% of this group reporting a completed installation within 6 months following the event. Following the event, some respondents (X%) reported that they plan to install a heat pump within the next 12 months.’

Who we share your personal information with

In the following section, ‘homeowner’ refers to registered homeowners who have agreed to accept visitors on the day of the event, to see and hear their heat pump.

We will share attendee and homeowner email addresses with project partners only if you have requested information from them. We will share registered attendee names with homeowners hosting an Open Home, so they know who to expect at their property. homeowner addresses will not be posted online or sent via email.

We will share the summary report of anonymised survey findings with district, borough and city councils in Kent, and may publish the report online. This is to inform service improvement and potential future provisions. For example, running another similar event in a different area, or supporting installation or retrofit projects.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law or in connection with legal proceedings.

We will share personal information with our legal and professional advisers in the event of a dispute, complaint, or claim.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge, which allow you to:

• know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
• ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request)
• ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
• object to direct marketing
• make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Depending on our reason for using your information, you may also be entitled to:

• object to how we are using your information
• ask us to delete information we hold about you
• have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
• object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
• stop us using your information in certain ways.

We will always seek to comply with your request. However, we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise a right, contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.

Your right to withdraw consent

As we have a consent basis for collecting your personal data, it is outlined in registration forms for homeowners and attendees that by submitting a response, you consent to the Kent County Council Energy Team collecting and using your data as outlined in this privacy notice. You can withdraw your consent for your personal information to be held by us at any time by emailing data.protection@kent.gov.uk.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Contact

Contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.

You can contact our Data Protection Officer, Benjamin Watts, through email or post at:

UK GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with Information Commissioner, who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or call 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.