ONE way of measuring the economic activity of a city is to count the cranes on the skyline. In fact, the Irish Times publishes a monthly ‘crane count’ as a yardstick to how much commercial property is in development at any one time.
When Bill Clinton visited Belfast to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, he famously concluded his remarks by saying ‘keep the votes fair, keep the voices free and keep the cranes up.’
Bill didn’t mention the drains, but he would have not been out of order for adding to his refrain a requirement to keep on investing in our water and sewage systems because, away from the headlines what is emerging as the biggest barrier to further infrastructure development in Northern Ireland is the crumbling water and sewage system and the lack of capacity to connect new developments, large and small, commercial and residential.
A large part of our economic future is staked on a buoyant tourism sector and so far it has paid off. But if we are to continue to attract increasing numbers of tourists year on year, we will need more hotels. If Belfast gets back to pre-Covid levels of commercial property demand, the number of applications for grade A office space will continue to grow and if we are to truly meet the demand for social and private housing we will need to exceed current levels of housebuilding by a considerable margin.
We know there are issues with our planning system; decisions simply take too long, statutory consultees miss their response targets habitually and without penalty, and ultimately developers and promoters of new schemes just get more and more frustrated. Over and above this issue though is the lack of capacity in our water system.
This has led to the situation where even very small applications for a handful of new houses can be blocked through a lack of capacity in the water and sewage infrastructure. Investing hundreds of million of pounds each year in improvements and upgrades which are effectively below ground and rather intangible may not be an attractive option for politicians and the public, but we have reached crunch time.
Those decisions need to be made. NI Water is on record as saying we are at tipping point, that between now and the next five years, an investment of £2.5 billion is required, and they are frank enough to say that a solution to its ongoing under funding has yet to be found.
The implications are stark. From the NI Water Strategy document: ‘underfunding has already resulted in curbs to economic development with new housing and businesses being unable to get connected to our sewerage system in over 100 towns across the province.’
They also openly predict that economic development of Belfast will stall, the City Deal will not reach its potential and state: ‘If you want to put up the cranes, you have to invest in the drains.’
Against this context, the Executive’s investment strategy is akin to the Emperor’s new clothes. The plan to build 100,000 new homes, recently launched by the Department for Communities, falls at the first hurdle.
When a development of as few as seven homes in north Belfast cannot get connected to the existing water system - as is the case - talk of 100,00 homes across Northern Ireland is a fallacy. It’s also unfair because those on the waiting list, in housing stress, see the headlines and have their hopes raised. But without funding, the land, planning permission and the ability to connect to a working sewage system, there will be no 100,000 new homes.
This issue was brought to Stormont recently. Developer James Fraser told MLAs that their own engineering consultants took a different view and believed that there was capacity within the NIW network. They gave voice to the belief that water officials were deliberately rejecting development applications in order to put pressure on the Executive to release more funds. I can’t stand over that assertion, but it could be that NI Water are a bit strait-jacketed in their blanket response to planning applications.
Yes the additional funds for infrastructure upgrades are needed and frankly water charges should have been introduced here long before now, but that is an issue which all of our political parties continue to run scared from.
With an election just weeks away they are all likely to double down on a ‘no charges’ pledge. However in making a perfectly sound case for additional funding, NI Water could at the same time be introduce a bit of imagination, innovation and flexibility when it comes to facilitating specific developments where they can. One approach does not have to contradict the other.
Yes we want to see the cranes up, and we need therefore to see investment in the drains. If we can also bring a bit of flexibility in the meantime, the waterboys could see the whole of the moon.
Brendan Mulgrew is managing partner at MW Advocate (www.mwadvocate.com). Follow him on Twitter at @brendanbelfast
