Investment in water infrastructure is critical if a new housing target for Northern Ireland is to be met, construction leaders have warned.
The Belfast-based Construction Employers Federation (CEF) said decades of underfunding would have to be reversed, and that this would be a critical factor in achieving plans to build 100,000 homes.
CEF chief executive Mark Spence called for the devolved Stormont government to follow the recommendations of a March 2024 report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO). The report called for the government to establish an expert-led “comprehensive review of alternative arrangements” to the current funding mechanism for water services provider NI Water.
Such a review was important, he said, given how “crucial that investment is to wider economic activity such as homebuilding”.
Spence explained: “This must mean sustainably addressing the decades of underfunding in our water and wastewater system, which is holding up housing and economic development across Northern Ireland.”
His comments followed the announcement on Monday (9 December) by communities minister Gordon Lyons of a 15-year housing-supply strategy for NI.
Lyons told the Northern Ireland Assembly that cross-government working and planning changes would be part of a new approach to “tackle the housing crisis head on”.
Delivery of the 100,000 homes target will be spread over the 15-year period.
The minister also announced a retrofit programme to improve energy efficiency and pledged to reduce maintenance backlogs.
Lyons said the devolved government would be taking “a whole-system approach to housing supply”. As well as other departments, he said “developers, the construction industry, local councils all have to play their part in this too”.
The next step will be working with NI councils to develop new local plans.
Along with social housing, the plan involves creating more private rented dwellings. Lyons said: “I will continue to prioritise capital spending on delivering much needed social homes but I also want to deliver for people and hardworking families who can’t get or don’t want a social home, by offering them safe, secure, affordable alternatives.”
Although Lyons said his department had invested more than £750m since 2019 to start 8,341 new social home builds, he gave no details on future funding.
Last month, the NIAO revealed that homebuilding in NI had slumped to a 60-year low, in part due to restrictions on new connections to the water system.
