SHANKILL BOMB PLEA MEMORIAL SERVICE IS TOLD: WE NEED OUR POLITICIANS TO LEAD

THE building of new homes in Larne, Lurgan, Dungannon and Limavady should stop, Northern Ireland Water has said.

The utility revealed that it doesn’t have the capacity at more than 70 sewage treatment works to deal with any more new housing developments.

Building the infrastructure for such developments would cost NI Water an extra £140m — meaning developers would have to fill the gap and fund private sewerage works.

In a statement the Department for Infrastructure told the BBC that funding for NI Water “has to be balanced against the needs of transport and other services”.

It added that the department worked “closely with NI Water and the utility regulator to determine the levels of funding”.

Sara Venning, chief executive of NI Water, told the broadcaster that it only had enough finance to develop 19 out of more than 70 waste water treatment works and networks which require upgrading up until 2021.

“We are a big infrastructure business, we need to have the infrastructure in place to support development, to support tourism and to protect the environment, so I believe it requires urgent attention,” she said.

“To give you an indication, 70 sites would require approximately £200m to remediate and we have been given access to £60m worth of funding, so you can see that gap.

“So we would call, moving forward, that the importance of investing in infrastructure is recognised and supported.”

The lack of infrastructure to deal with an expanding Northern Ireland will have consequences, Ms Venning warned.

“Whether that is new housing development, whether that is industrial expansion, whether that is tourism ambitions and water- ways and beaches, there will be a clear and tangible impact right across our economy,” she said.

Gavin McGuire, director of the Federation of Master Builders NI, said the problem was a “ticking time-bomb”.

He told the BBC: “We want to see more development taking place but that’s going to come at a cost to the builder and ultimately the client, and if the infrastructure isn’t here to actually build it is a worrying development.”

In September NI Water warned of restrictions as a result of a £55m shortfall in the government funds that it gets for projects under the terms of a six-year price control plan.

It had also been told it would have £990m for the period after asking for £1.7bn, NI Water said.

But the company said that because the money is not ringfenced, it was competing with other areas, including health and education.