According to a 2024 BBC news report, some 19,000 homes are delayed due to a lack of water capacity in Northern Ireland, a shocking reflection on the lack of investment in basic infrastructure here. The FMB has been lobbying and feeding back members issues on this subject for several years. It has been a foreseen timebomb that our industry now has to deal with, stifling development and leading to record low deliveries of badly needed new homes.
The Department of Infrastructure has launched a consultation on the impact of more developer contributions to fund NI Water’s investment needs. The FMB feels that putting this responsibility for the basic provision of running water and sewage on a developer, will further affect home development viability and ultimately affordability for clients.
Your views are important, and we would also ask that you can feed these back into the consultation:
The consultation proposes two potential options:
- Voluntary Developer Contributions for Wastewater Infrastructure – developers could voluntarily pay to offset the costs of upgrading or replacing the wastewater infrastructure preventing new connections in the specific areas where they are unable to build.
- Compulsory Developer Wastewater Contribution Levy – the introduction of a compulsory wastewater levy, requiring a financial contribution from developers which would be used on a prioritised needs basis across the whole of the Northern Ireland, not just in the areas where they would directly benefit.
Share your views
If you have experience or views on these proposals, you can feed these back to gavinmcguire@fmb.org.uk in confidence, this will help us represent you.
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