CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYERS FEDERATION THE VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY
MAXIMISING ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES WITH STORMONT, THE UK GENERAL ELECTION’S IMPACT ON PUBLIC SPENDING, AND CONSTRAINTS AROUND SOCIAL HOUSING, WASTEWATER CAPACITY AND GRID CONNECTION ARE AMONG KEY AREAS OF FOCUS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYERS FEDERATION… As the certified representative body for the construction industry in Northern Ireland, the Construction Employers Federation (CEF) represents the interests of not only its member companies but also roughly 65,000 skilled workers engaged within the wider construction sector. In his latest update on work in progress for the Federation, CEF Chief Executive Mark Spence looks at some of the key issues it is focusing on: CEF ramps up its political engagement
Mark Spence.
RETURN OF THE NI EXECUTIVE MEANS
OUTCOME OF WESTMINSTER ELECTION KEENLY AWAITED With the UK General Election set for July 4, industry will look keenly to its aftermath – particularly how the next UK government will treat the matter of public spending in NI. Given the need for the NI Executive to have multi-year budgets, so as to maximise the spend available to them, the speed of the new government’s Comprehensive Spending Review and whether this will report in sufficient time for the Executive to set a multi-year budget for 2025/26 onwards is critical. DEFECTIVE PREMISES LEGISLATION MOVES FORWARD After an intervention by the Communities Minister and wider Executive, legislation will shortly be enacted in Northern Ireland to extend elements of the 2022 Building Safety Act in England and Wales – specifically around the defective premises limitation period – so that the limitation period will move from 6 to 30 years retrospectively, and 15 years going forward. A wider NI Building Safety Bill is not, however, now likely until the next Assembly mandate in 2027. This Bill would be largely modelled on the remaining elements of the 2022 Building Safety Act that have not yet been taken forward in Northern Ireland.
MINISTERIAL MEETINGS With the restoration of the NI Executive, came the opportunity to take forward early engagement with a number of Executive ministers critical to the prospects of the construction industry. In meetings with Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald, Economy Minister Conor Murphy and Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd, we highlighted a range of challenges and opportunities facing members. These included skills, procurement, public sector budgets, NI Water NI WATER CHALLENGE CONTINUES TO DOMINATE With very little of Northern Ireland not having some level of NI Water wastewater capacity constraint, and at least some 19,000 houses currently unable to be built as a result, it remains crucial that the CEF works with NIW to seek
connection and reinforcement costs, as well as a separate announcement by NIE Networks that the cost of a connection is to go up by 123%, the CEF is to meet with the Utility Regulator in the coming weeks to reinforce the message that the cost of building a home is increasingly unaffordable; not just for homebuilders but also for consumers. infrastructure problems, planning reform, the crisis in homebuilding and building regulations. Such engagement will be a regular feature of our work over the rest of this Assembly mandate. means by which development can still proceed. Given the unlikelihood that NIW will meet its PC21 capital requirements over the six-year period, we continue to engage with NIW’s developer services team to look to how we can meet NI’s housing need in the now certainty of NIW’s continued underfunding.
MIXED PICTURE ON COSTS OF ELECTRICITY CONNECTIONS FOR
HOMEBUILDERS The challenges facing
homebuilders are added to by the continued uncertainty with respect to the costs of electricity connections going forward. At a time of mixed messaging when it comes to the proposed consultation on the socialisation of
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