Scandal of Stormont’s army homes

Private firm protecting boarded-up properties from vandals

NEARLY £15,000 a year is being spent on securing former Ministry of Defence houses that are lying empty.

The Department for Communities is paying a private security firm £1,200 a month to take care of the boarded-up buildings in Lisburn, Co Antrim.

The properties are estimated to have a market value of around of £5million and were deemed surplus to requirement by the MOD who gifted them to the department eight months ago.

The 56 homes are in the Mountview Drive and Skyline Drive area of the city.

Clanmil Housing has plans to buy the properties, refurbish them and make them available for social housing.

But with no Assembly at Stormont, the ownership of the properties cannot be transferred because Government approval is a legal requirement of the change.

In the meantime the Department of Communities has paid £9,600 this year alone to have them secured and looked after by a private firm.

And as time goes on, the homes are being subjected to vandalism and attack. Gardens are overgrown and the houses are falling into dilapidation.

Now the department has confirmed almost £70,000 has been invested in the properties in total since they took ownership in January. The cost covers ongoing rates bill, draining and removing oil tanks, remedial work to secure the properties and an average £1,200 a month bill paid to for a private security firm to protect the properties.

Several local DUP representatives, including Lagan Valley MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, have called on senior civil servants and the Secretary of State to intervene to expedite the transfer of the homes, but they have been told the decision must be signed off by the Assembly. Councillor Jonathan Craig told the Lisburn Star the current situation as “ridiculous”.

He said: “Clanmil want to refurbish these homes and make them available to people who need them, but because there is no Assembly the whole thing is just left in limbo and the department is having to spend money on a private security firm to try to secure the area.

“It’s ridiculous that this transfer is being held up. It’s a noncontroversial issue and no one would object.” A Department for Communities spokesman said: “Given the current situation with regard to the Assembly, the department is seeking advice as to whether it would be possible to effect the transfer of the former MOD properties to Clanmil when the Assembly is not sitting.”

COSTS Home in Lisburn, Co Antrim