North Northamptonshire Council did not force a couple to sell their home to accommodate asylum-seekers

By: Iryna Hnatiuk
April 23 2024

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According to social media posts (archived here and here) and news reports from outlets including the Daily Mail and The Telegraph, in early 2024, a letter issued by a local council in the U.K. allegedly informed a couple that their home would be subject to a Compulsory Purchase Order to accommodate asylum seekers and refugees. However, such claims are misleading since the letter makes no mention of forcibly selling the property.

Context

In January 2024, U.K. homeowners Jose and Ted Saunders received a letter from local authorities claiming they had been enforcing the "compulsory selling" of their home to house asylum-seekers. These claims sparked outrage and concern on social media. However, a closer look at the situation demonstrates that these claims are misleading.

The claim about the “compulsory house selling” sparked outrage and concern in comments. (Source: Facebook/Screenshot) 

In fact

While the couple did receive a letter concerning their property from the North Northamptonshire Council, it did not mention "compulsory selling." In response to fact-checking outlet Snopes, North Northamptonshire Council indicated that the letter was part of broader efforts to address housing issues and clean up the community through voluntary means.

The Daily Mail published what they called a "strongly-worded letter" that Jose and Ted Saunders received from their local council. The text stated:

We are writing as have reason to believe that the above-named premises or land is empty or unused and that you are the owner. We would like to take this opportunity to find out what your intentions are for the premises or sites. It may be that you already have proposals, but if not, we can give you some advice on options available to you to bring the premises/site back into use.

The Government has identified empty privately owned properties as a potential cause of blight within communities, and as a wasted resource at time of high housing need. It is setting targets for Local Authorities and is requiring action by them to reduce this problem.

As part of this process North Northamptonshire Council is identifying empty properties and sites within the area, with the aim of encouraging owners to bring premises back into use or to find alternative options for derelict sites.

The Resettlement Team at North Northamptonshire Council supports asylum seekers and refugees across three different projects: Homes for Ukraine, Afghan Resettlement and Asylum Dispersal. At present, we are seeing a considerable increase in positive immigration decisions being made in favor of asylum seekers, mainly single men. Once they are granted refugee status, they are given only 28 days to leave their Home Office provided accommodation and to apply for benefits, find work, and source move on accommodation. Due to the limited timeframe and increases to private rents, the council is struggling to source suitable accommodation for this cohort. The ideal long-term solution would be to provide accommodation by using empty properties which would benefit owners and the project.

There are other ways in which we might be able to help/advise and work with owners to bring their properties ack into use by informal means.

However, there are a range of measures available to the Council to require owners of empty properties to carry out repairs to prevent them causing a nuisance to neighboring premises and/or to take action to bring them back into use.

The letter indeed acknowledged the council's need to accommodate asylum-seekers and refugees. At the same time, it did not mention compulsory selling or forced sale of the Saunders' home.

A member of the North Northamptonshire council commented to The Telegraph that "in terms of trying to acquire more social housing, councils will adopt a variety of measures, one of them being identifying empty properties that they can bring back into use."

In the video circulating on X, (formerly Twitter) Jose Saunders told the interviewer, "That letter says that because the property is derelict, they can compulsorily purchase it. If there are any repairs to be done, they could take them off the price of the property. And these properties are for migrants."

When Ted Saunders purchased the home in 2023 for £200,000, it was not derelict, as the council letter suggested. A representative for the local council clarified that the letter was not intended to mandate the sale of the couple's home. Councilman Jason Smithers said in a statement to the Daily Mail: "North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) is working with owners of long-term empty properties to bring their properties back into use. Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) are not used to 'oust' current owners from their properties; they are a tool used as a very last resort to bring empty properties, which are a valuable and much-needed housing resource, back into use.

The 'empty property initiative letters' were sent out in a bid to assist empty property owners to bring their property back into use, and on the whole, the support from NNC was gratefully received. Since NNC formed in 2021, no properties have been purchased by CPO. This is a mechanism of last resort to bring problematic, long-term empty properties back into use.

Unfortunately, in this case, records held by NNC were outdated, and the letter was incorrectly sent to a property which was occupied. For this, I am very sorry for causing any undue distress and worry."

Logically Facts contacted North Northamptonshire Council for a comment and will update this check if we receive a response.

The verdict

Reports that U.K. homeowners Jose and Ted Saunders were required by local authorities to sell their home to house illegal migrants are unfounded. The letter received from the council contained no directives regarding compulsory sales, and there is no evidence of any compulsory purchase orders or forced sales being implemented. The correspondence appears to be part of the local council's strategy to address housing shortages through voluntary methods rather than through coercive measures. Therefore, we have marked the claim as misleading.