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Lack of water infrastructure capacity in Northern Ireland would take ‘decade’ to fix
The lack of water infrastructure capacity in Northern Ireland would take a decade to address if the necessary investment was available now, a consultant told conference attendees in Belfast.
Lack of water infrastructure capacity in Northern Ireland would take ‘decade’ to fix #UKhousingThe lack of water infrastructure capacity in Northern Ireland would take a decade to address if the necessary investment was available now, a consultant has said #UKhousingSpeaking at the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA)’s Development and Asset Management conference on Thursday, Anthony McCloy, managing director at McCloy Consulting, said that “unless we can find some sort of dramatic, innovative solutions, it’s only going to get worse”.
“Even if we had that major investment now… it’s probably going to take a decade,” he added.
The session focused on problems with Northern Ireland Water, the main water company in the country, and in particular how the lack of infrastructure is delaying development.
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It emerged last year that around 19,000 homes in Northern Ireland are unable to proceed because of a lack of wastewater capacity.
Last year, a report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office found that the lack of capacity has meant that development applications in 100 areas, including 25 cities and towns, cannot be approved or are being subject to restrictions.
It called for a “comprehensive review” of funding arrangements because the current model “creates uncertainty and constraints around securing and using resources”.
During the session on Thursday, when asked by an audience member if the NI Water problem is “as bad as we are led to believe”, panel member Ronan Sheehy, director at Sheehy Consulting, said: “Absolutely.”
He added: “Every single development that we’re working on, there’s a problem. There are certain parts of Northern Ireland that you just can’t build housing on and you have to focus on the areas where there is potential to build houses.
“So it’s about focusing on where you can build, and stop wasting time and energy in areas where NI Water need a serious amount of money to fix the problem.”
Mr Sheehy said he was hearing about stalled developments on a “daily basis”.
Mr McCloy referred to the draft Programme for Government published last year, which for the first time included housing as one of its nine priorities.
He said the Northern Ireland Executive “wants to provide more social and affordable housing”.
“They want to protect the environment, they want to reform and transform public services, and they want to grow a globally competitive, sustainable economy.
“I don’t see how that happens if they don’t invest in infrastructure,” he added.
In December 2024, the minister for infrastructure announced that more than 2,000 new homes could have water and sewerage networks as a result of £19.5m in extra funding.
However in January, house builders in Northern Ireland launched a new group to tackle the “growing crisis caused by the region’s failing wastewater infrastructure”.
Build Homes NI said that decades of underfunding in Northern Ireland’s wastewater infrastructure “represents a political failure that has created a social, environmental and economic crisis”, which has led to record figures on the social housing waiting list and a record lows of completions.
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