Wulvern - need to know?

I've received an interesting item from Wulvern Housing. As a councillor I was on the mailing list for their tenants' newsletter homewords and they've obviously not altered their list following the demise of the Borough Council.

With the newsletter came a questionnaire you and yours which they want their tenants (but presumably not me!) to fill in. The questions include:

a) National Insurance number
b) sexuality i.e. straight or gay
c) religion
d) do you consider yourself to be disabled or vulnerable?

Now call me paranoid, but is this information that a landlord should be seeking to hold? What is the purpose? And how securely will such data be held?

Let me air some specific concerns.

1. Why would my religious beliefs be relevant to my tenancy?
2. Why would my sexual orientation be relevant to my tenancy?
3. If this data fell into the wrong hands ... how dangerous would it be for certain people to hold information that "Mr Smith at no.46 has XX12345C as his national insurance number" or "Mrs Smith at no.23 has mobility problems and is registered blind"? Sounds like a gift for identity theft and bogus callers.

I'll be dropping Wulvern a line to ask for their justification and will await it with interest.