C O N S T R U C T I O N E M P L O Y E R S F E D E R A T I O N T H E V O I C E O F T H E I N D U S T R Y
DAVID FRY, CEF DIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, EXAMINES HOUSING SUPPLY AND CALLS FOR NI EXECUTIVE TO MAKE HOUSING A FOCUS IN THE PROGRAMME FOR GOVERNMENT... Delivering aHousingStrategy NI citizens deserve
David Fry, CEF Director of External Affairs.
O ver the coming months, the Department for Communities – and the wider Northern Ireland Executive – will lay out its long-term vision for housing through a new Housing Supply Strategy. As a pre-cursor to this, we have called on the Executive to include a specific housing outcome in the Programme for Government. While we await the final version of the PfG, it’s crucial that we begin to consider the detail that would underpin such an outcome and the means by which we deliver the type and quality of housing that Northern Ireland’s citizens need.
abundantly clear that rectifying the wastewater treatment capacity issues that Northern Ireland Water faces must be the critical output of the coming 10-year ISNI. While the wastewater capacity issues are now relatively well understood, their true impact – the number of new build houses they are currently holding up – is not. Additionally, we are concerned that many believe that, with the publication and approval of the PC21, the issues will gradually abate over the coming six years. However, in comparison with where we sat in the last financial year, NI Water needs to grow their capital budget from approximately £150m of the Executive’s full Capital budget to upwards of £300m in order to deliver PC21 – and this level will need to be achieved year-on-year for most of the rest of this decade.
While the construction industry is more than capable of delivering this, when we factor in all other infrastructure pressures, we must genuinely question whether the Block Grant can. As the Executive is now prepared to have the discussion about the future governance and financing of the NI Housing Executive, ISNI must lay the groundwork for the same discussion with respect to NI Water, and it is vital that a new Housing Supply Strategy takes account of these issues. PLANNING The challenges facing NI Water are not the only major roadblock to housing development. Although not within the direct remit of a Housing Supply Strategy, the just completed review of the 2011 Planning Act by DfI is very important.
NI WATER In our response to a strategy
that will be allied to the Housing Supply Strategy, the Executive’s Investment Strategy, we have made
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