Northern Ireland spends £45m buying homes from intimidated owners

The figures were disclosed in the NIHE’s annual report, published last Thursday.

It showed that the cost of such purchases had risen seven-fold in the past five years (table, left).

Most of the homeowners using the Special Purchase of Evacuated Dwellings scheme are understood to be prison and police officers whose personal details were made public and subsequently received threats and suffered intimidation.

SPED applications are processed by the executive and funded by Northern Ireland’s Department for Social Development.

The department had to find an extra £12m in 2003/4 after a dramatic rise in applications.

In addition, the NIHE received housing applications from 1245 households presenting as homeless as a result of intimidation.

Any homeowner can apply to SPED for their home to be bought at market value, providing they have a certificate from Northern Ireland’s chief constable confirming that they have to leave as a result of intimidation.

Most money spent through SPED is eventually recovered. The NIHE expects to recoup 90% of the purchase price through resale on the open market.

An NIHE spokeswoman said its records did not show how many homes were bought through SPED, nor could it confirm the reason for the intimidation that leads to evacuations.

“We don’t need to know the reasons,” she said. “Our job is to help people, irrespective of the reasons for the problem.”

However, most applications are understood to result from sectarian conflict, or tensions between paramilitary groups.

In the most high-profile incident, the NIHE moved the remaining residents of the unionist Torrens estate out of north Belfast, after attacks on their homes by republican youths.

The annual report also disclosed that the NIHE has a waiting list of almost 28,000 households, assessed almost 9000 applicants as homeless last year and sold more than 5500 homes to sitting tenants.