As Northern Ireland’s construction industry came together to celebrate the 25th edition of the CEF Excellence Awards, Mark Spence, CEF Chief Executive used his address to call on the NI Executive to take bold, decisive action to address barriers to growth, specifically around the decades of underfunding of our water and wastewater systems.
The event also heard from Minister for Infrastructure, John O’Dowd MLA, who was the keynote speaker.
On the Executive’s draft Programme for Government and how the Executive should deal with NI Water’s underfunding, Mark Spence, said. “In our opinion, any solution must begin at the highest level with the Executive’s 9-point Programme for Government. While the commitment within it to housing is welcomed, we firmly believe that how we sustainably fund our water and wastewater system is itself more than worthy of being a tenth priority, underpinning and enabling the other nine.
“With that strategic focus, we then believe the Executive could properly and jointly consider the matter of underfunding, that has been largely responsible for a 60–year low of housing completions in 2023, a record sadly likely to be eclipsed by a new low this year.
“In March this year the Audit Office report on NI Water recommended that a comprehensive review of alternative arrangements for funding our water and wastewater infrastructure be led by suitably qualified experts.
“Given the growing housing crisis, emerging evidence of economic frustration, and mounting environmental challenges, Minister, we strongly believe that now is the moment, to deliver upon that independent recommendation.
“As we have consistently said, ours is not an argument for a greater financial burden to be placed on families that already struggle to pay their bills, but rather we argue for the use of precedents already set, to use powers already within our means, to ensure that we not only have the homes that our community deserves but also harness and maximise the economic opportunities that we know exist.”
On those specific precedents, Mr Spence commented:”Some years ago, with industry’s full backing, the housing associations were enabled to utilise newly granted borrowing powers which have since delivered nearly 60,000 social and affordable homes.
“Today, again with our support, we await the imminent outcome of the culmination of years of work to deliver on the revitalisation of the Housing Executive. That revitalisation shows that, with the full support of the Northern Ireland Executive, solutions can be found that balance the requirement to protect the most vulnerable in our society, with the need to find a sustainable way to fund the maintenance of social homes, ensure they are climate-proofed for the future and bring the Housing Executive back itself to delivering newbuild homes.
Need to Work Together
“Minister, you and your Executive colleagues are to be congratulated for taking the bold and decisive step of approving the revitalisation of the Housing Executive and the time is right to apply the lessons learnt from the Housing Executive to NI Water.
“Given the clear budgetary context set out by the new UK government, we believe that it is now incumbent on all of us to work together to consider alternative achievable and sustainable long-term funding options. Such options may include mutual, co-operative or public corporation models that could be scrutinised and assessed by an independent review and subsequently selected, designed, legislated and delivered by the Executive to meet its promises to the electorate, as set out in the Programme for Government.
“A year ago, we had no Executive, no Ministers and no certainty of a full return to local devolved powers. Since the spring, we have seen an Executive at pains to assert its purpose and meaning to those who elected it.
“You have led your department forcefully, stating your belief, which we fully endorse, that Infrastructure is no longer the poor relation, rather it is the bedrock and enabler for the other Executive ministries to deliver their priorities. You have been as good as your word in your short period in office, having opened the A6, opened the largest integrated public transport hub on the island, and committed to the much-needed A5 and York Street Interchange upgrades.
“Minister, please take back to your Executive colleagues the message from the Construction sector tonight – we are fully committed to the efforts to fund essential infrastructure and tackle our growing housing crisis and remove economic obstacles. Our ask is that this Executive matches our commitment and seizes this once-in-a-generation opportunity to enable the necessary changes to deliver the ambitious investment in infrastructure that the people of this place deserve and leave a legacy of which we can all be proud”.
