Councillor calls for Home Office policy to stop after a leaked document shows asylum seekers postcodes

Alderman Paul Porter made the call after obtaining a leaked document that he says pinpoints the postcodes where homes have been bought by a private firm on behalf of the UK Home Office to house asylum seekers.

He has raised concerns that the purchase of these homes is driving up rents across Lisburn and parts of Belfast.The UK has a legal commitment to support people seeking asylum, while it makes a decision on their asylum claim, by providing financial support and ‘dispersal’ accommodation.

The Conservative government signed regional contracts with three private companies in 2019 – Serco, Mears and Clearsprings – who were tasked with helping to house asylum seekers. Mears has bought a number of homes in Northern Ireland as part of that project.

Reacting to the 2023 figures he obtained, Mr Porter said: “We are not in this all together. It’s the areas that already have major issues with homelessness, housing, educational underachievement and health inequalities.

"The Home Office and Mears have purposely assigned these areas to deal with the Government’s flawed immigration policy.

“They don’t want to answer why they have targeted the most deprived areas in Belfast to buy and rent their properties.”

Mr Porter has raised the issue of Mears and rising rents at Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council previously when local representatives were briefed by Housing Executive boss Grainia Long. Ms Long outlined a number of different reason for rising rents.

She told the November meeting that pre-Covid the Housing Executive “were placing about 3,000 households into temporary accommodation a year in Northern Ireland”, but after the pandemic they are placing about 11,000 households into temporary accommodation.

She added there were “three aspects for the growth in demand” – the pandemic related sofa surfing and people having to live in a bubble; the exodus of a number of private landlords during the cost of living crisis which left a lot of people homeless; and a “much smaller group of people, are those who came to Northern Ireland had sought and received leave to remain and we have seen a small growth in that demand”.

Ms Long said: “It is the case that the growth in Mears portfolio has had an impact on the housing market here. It must have done, you can’t suddenly grow a portfolio of that size. Now, we were very concerned about that two years ago, we sought meetings with Mears, we now have regular meetings with Mears and rightly so.”

Mr Porter’s call for a change in the Home Office policy came as a UK Audit Office report showed the spend on the accommodation had dwarfed initial estimates.

The Home Office originally estimated that the total cost of the contract in Northern Ireland for 2019-2029 would be £100m. But according to the NAO, the Home Office’s latest estimate for the cost in Northern Ireland from 2019-2029 is £400m. In 2024-25 alone, the cost to the Home Office of asylum accommodation in Northern Ireland was £55m.According to the NAO, there were 2,741 people in asylum accommodation in Northern Ireland in December 2024. That included 413 people in hotels and 2,328 people in other accommodation.Mr Porter added: “What is the number of local vulnerable families and individuals the Home Office policy has made homeless or displaced? These individual figures would show the significant amounts of properties that Mears has bought and rented.“Mears is mainly buying properties in socially deprived areas of Belfast, in both communities. These areas are still dealing with the legacy of the Troubles, and are now being asked to suffer again, because of this Home Office policy.“Mears buying and renting so many properties is leading to limited availability of rental properties, which has driven rental prices to go through the roof in areas around Belfast.

"These figures show a massive 85% of people are being housed in Belfast postcodes and most of those in deprived areas.

"I am dealing with and seeing the impact on local families of this policy. I am calling for this policy to be stopped now and for the policy to be reviewed by the Home office.”Due to Mr Porter’s updated concerns over housing units being bought up in deprived areas, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) contacted Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) to ask if it was being impacted by Mears buying and renting properties.

A spokesperson for NIHE said: “We are experiencing housing supply issues across all tenures and all areas of Northern Ireland and we welcomed the recent Housing Supply Strategy announced by the Minister for Communities.

“To assist in meeting our statutory duties to those experiencing homelessness, we currently have access to over 5,200 units of temporary accommodation across Northern Ireland, 360 of these units were brought in to use in the past year.”The LDRS contacted the Home Office and Mears for comment.

A Mears spokesperson said: “Mears accommodation in Northern Ireland is in connection with the UK Home Office Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts.

"Any Freedom of Information enquiries in relation to these contracts should be directed to the UK Home Office as they are the relevant public body.”

The UK Home office declined to comment following the postcode leak, but provided ‘background guidance’ on the matter.It states: “We do not routinely comment on commercial matters. Mears Group consults on all accommodation used for asylum dispersal with relevant partners in Northern Ireland, and we maintain active governance forums to discuss issues relating to procurement.

“We provide funding to local authorities to support them in meeting the needs of asylum seekers and host communities.

"Value for money, community cohesion and the wellbeing of those working and living in asylum accommodation will continue to be at the forefront of decision-making as we continue to explore options.”