Letter: Wastewater crisis is an economic car crash for the construction and housebuilding industry

By Letters

Published 4th Oct 2024, 00:00 BST

Leader of the Opposition at Stormont Matthew O’Toole criticises the decision to pause the two city and growth deals, but the reality is that these and other developments across Northern Ireland are delayed due to the wastewater crisis.

NI Water has a serious funding shortfall of £185 million for 2024/25 and has closed 40 drainage networks across 30 towns and cities.

At present, 19,000 properties have been refused a foul drainage connection, which is approximately half of all applications.

This is a dreadful situation for anyone hoping to build a new factory, buy a new home or move into a social house.

It will also fuel housing inequality as developers are forced to invest in wealthy areas at the expense of more deprived areas.

For instance, the Derry City and Strabane council area is at the top of the refusal list with 5,300 properties being turned down.

At the Infrastructure Committee meeting last week the infrastructure minister, John O’Dowd, confirmed that his officials are investigating whether new primary legislation is required to enable private developers to fund this shortfall for the infrastructure upgrades.

However, in the meantime, this is an economic car crash for the construction and housebuilding industry.

So, yes, it is concerning that the two growth deals have been paused but Stormont politicians should be concentrating on the more immediate wastewater crisis.

Brian Pope, chartered civil engineer, Banbridge