Lack of wastewater infrastructure holding up thousands of social homes in Northern Ireland

Inside Housing visited one development where construction work is ongoing to set up the road infrastructure. However, that is as far as it can go without wastewater infrastructure.

Mr Kerr said: “As an organisation, Apex is borrowing private finance to purchase land at a time when interest rates have risen substantially. When we own land, it’s really important that we build on it to cover our costs and to ensure we are delivering homes to address the ever-increasing waiting list.

“If something isn’t addressed very quickly, the diggers here will complete their work to create these roads and then everything will come to a standstill, because we can’t go any further without the sewerage infrastructure. As a result, you’re delaying hundreds of homes being built, whilst hundreds of people are added to the waiting list every year.”

The latest government statistics showed that the number of applicants on the housing waiting list in Northern Ireland was 48,366 on 30 September.

One solution being discussed is a developer levy, which would involve developers paying for the water infrastructure themselves. It has been criticised by house builders as a “sticking-plaster solution” that will make social housing schemes “unaffordable”.

Mr Kerr said that a levy “may work in certain locations where you have a market that will allow you to build that into the sales price of a property for sale”.

“But for the development of social homes, any levy will inevitably be passed on to us as a housing association. We, in turn, can only recover that cost from tenants’ rent. So, the risk is that the most economically disadvantaged will end up paying for it.”

Radius, which manages more than 33,000 homes across Northern Ireland, has some developments stalled and others completely prevented.

Denise Quinn, its senior head of development, told Inside Housing: “[There are] significant challenges now with NI water, to the point where we have had sites which have been in the feasibility stage, which are now closed to new connections, so we cannot go forward with those at all.”

Attendees of the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Association’s (NIFHA) asset management and development conference heard this month that the lack of water infrastructure capacity across the region would take a decade to address if the necessary investment was available now. 

Ms Quinn said that on some of Radius’ schemes, contractors have built homes first ahead of the drainage system. 

“We’ve had a couple where we’ve had fantastic contractors that have worked with us. They have actually completed the development before they’ve done the drainage just to make sure that we weren’t in a position where they had to down tools. 

“That is not how you would go about developing a site. You put in your infrastructure, you put in your roads, then you build your buildings.”

But she said contractors “have had to just flip it because we were looking at a 12-month delay to actually getting out of the ground”. 

“It’s scary when you look at all of the challenges that we have, but NI Water could be the biggest contributor to the housing crisis in Northern Ireland. It’s really quite daunting.”

On what the government could do, Ms Quinn said: “[It’s] obviously political hot potato, but there has to be a recognition that we are in housing crisis, and I only look at this as a housing developer, but there has to be a recognition that infrastructure investment is a civic requirement and it spans much more than just housing.”

She said she is concerned the lack of capacity will lead to areas being closed down to business, while people will be unable to get new schools and the housing they need. 

She said many of the responsibilities of government departments are being pushed onto housing associations. 

“Ultimately our raison d’être is to address housing need and provide safe houses. But everybody is pushing the responsibility for development connections, for additional sub-stations, for management and maintenance of play parks [onto us]. That’s the direction of travel of all civic bodies at the minute.”

She added: “How does this all come to a third sector? It’s completely unsustainable. We will continue to rise to the challenge, because that is what we’re here to do. But I gave a presentation a few weeks ago where I was saying we know there are hurdles, but the hurdles are getting higher. 

“It’s going to get to a point where our boards are going to say, is this a financially certain decision?”

Seamus Leheny, chief executive of NIFHA, told Inside Housing that the issue with wastewater infrastructure “has not occurred overnight” and has been “building for some time”.

“The social housing sector has been clear in wanting to see a resolution that lets much-needed social homes be built right across Northern Ireland.

“The situation where we have projects in construction but we don’t know if they will get a connection made, or projects which cannot even get a brick laid because of the uncertainty, is extremely bad for the whole sector, and particularly for the 48,000 on the housing waiting list,” Mr Leheny said. 

He added: “The core problem is that we don’t see any innovative ideas coming forward other than waiting for monitoring rounds that may hopefully open up a few developments here and there. 

“We need a more strategic approach for short to medium solutions, as well as the bigger funding issue resolved.”

A Department for Infrastructure spokesperson said: “Despite operating in a difficult financial environment for a number of years due to underfunding by the British government, the department has provided NI Water with £0.5bn of public money this financial year.

“NI Water was also allocated an additional £19.5m during October monitoring, specifically to address constraints in wastewater infrastructure and to unlock capacity for housing connections. 

“This funding will lead to additional capacity for some 2,300 new properties to connect to the sewerage system.”

The spokesperson said the department plans to consult in March on developer contributions, “as well as continuing to press for appropriate investment for NI Water”.

The department is bringing forward new legislation in relation to sustainable drainage systems “as part of the minister’s three-pronged approach to address the current wastewater capacity challenges,” they said. 

“Taken together, each part of this strategy will help contribute to unlocking further capacity for housing connections while the department will also explore how it can further address the housing need through the social and environmental guidance.”

Last month, the director of a new coalition of house builders said the wastewater infrastructure in Northern Ireland “isn’t fit for purpose”.