19,000 home backlog demands immediate action from NI Executive on governance and funding model of NI Water
8 April Housing Business Environment Infrastructure
Commenting ahead of an NI Assembly debate today on
‘Addressing NI Water Challenges’, Construction Employers Federation Chief
Executive Mark Spence said:
“A survey of our homebuilders has made clear that current
wastewater capacity constraints are holding up some 8,450 homes equating to
just under £1bn of investment. As we understand it, when coupled with the
proposals of housing associations and other developers, approximately 19,000
homes are today unable to proceed.
“Against a backdrop of a 60-year low of housing completions
in 2023 and an ever-growing social housing waiting list, it is unquestionable
that we are therefore in the middle of a housing crisis in Northern Ireland.
“Given the NI Executive’s one-year capital budget of £1.8bn
for 2024/25 - the same in cash terms as some 17 years ago – and a recurrent
need from NI Water from this of at least £500m per annum for the next decade,
the Executive must face the urgent reality that the overall settlement goes
nowhere near the level required in order to deliver many of the key projects
which are likely to form part of a Programme for Government, never mind NI
Water’s PC21 and PC27 programmes.
“Coming on the back of the recent NI Audit Office report on ‘Funding
water infrastructure in Northern Ireland’ which called for a “comprehensive
review of alternative arrangements, led by suitably qualified experts”, it
is therefore crucial that all parties take the opportunity today to unite
behind the motion and the need for a fundamental review of the governance and
funding model of NI Water with full consideration of options like
mutualisation.
“Without this, and in the clear context of the Executive’s
declining Block Grant capital expenditure, we are putting a major inhibitor on
economic growth and also removing from an entire generation the prospect of a
home to call their own.
“That is a damning indictment of any government and it is
one that, in Northern Ireland’s case, has been entirely predictable but for
which we can no longer neglect finding a solution”.