Walking down the Glen Road in west Belfast as a child, I used to pass a big set of black gates which were always closed. These were the gates to St Patrick’s Training school or the ‘bad boys’ home’ as it was known.
In the 1970s at Hold child Primary school, despite the troubles all around us, the biggest threat to an errant child that a teacher might say was ‘do you want to go to the bad boys’ home’? As a young boy, I got a shiver of dread every time I passed those gates.
Jump forward 30 years then and I got the chance to work on the removal of St Patrick’s and its transition to Glenmona, one of the most impressive social and affordable housing sites anywhere on these islands. If you haven’t travelled up the Mona bypass in west Belfast recently, find an excuse to go, because the transformation is amazing. Some 124 homes have already been handed over, with another 70 coming this year, and 500 or so in the years to come, all under the management of Apex Housing Association.
It’s a mammoth project, conceived and delivered by Braidwater, the development company behind it. The scheme itself has been years in the planning, and without the hard work and co-operation of a full range of local stakeholders, particularly Sinn Fein’s Paul Maskey and Ronan McLaughlin, it wouldn’t have happened. Getting a job done of this scale is extraordinarily complex so transparency, fairness, honesty, skill, resources and a large dollop of patience is required.
I have seen first-hand all of those in this job over the last six years and Glenmona is just one example. In my job over the last 20 years, I’ve been lucky to be exposed to many other large scale private and social housing projects, and I can say honestly, the people behind them are hard working, diligent, professional and very committed to delivering quality homes for their customers.
They also, for the most part, shun publicity or any ostentation and get on with their jobs, supporting their local communities in diverse ways. They do not put their heads above the parapet lightly.
And yet, last week, a new organisation created by all the major house-builders here was launched, Build Homes NI. It was a bold move from the builders, and one born out of pure frustration with the system here.
We are now building the fewest houses per year here since the 1960s and probably only half (5000 approximately) of what we should be building to match demand and demography. Anybody trying to get on the private, affordable or social housing ladder or paying the highest rents we have ever had to pay, will testify to that.
What is the problem? Well, the main one is the lack of investment in wastewater infrastructure, in plain terms that is the drains required to carry sewage, particularly in storm situations.
As the population grows and greater demand is put on the system by more houses, the drains and pipes either don’t exist or aren’t big enough. It’s not very sexy and a problem that has lost out to other Executive priorities like health and education, for instance. It is also a structural issue, the Executive set up NI Water to deal with all water issues but still kept it tethered to the Department of Infrastructure.
It’s a big problem, structurally, operationally and financially. And it is not going to work unless NI Water, the Executive and now Build Homes NI and other stakeholders come together and take some tough decisions.
John O’Dowd, the infrastructure minister, says, in principle, the funding model for NI Water is the correct one. The people at the front end of the refusals and delays from NI Water, now represented by Build Homes NI, disagree.
Of course, it doesn’t all lie at the minister’s door and the Executive’s funding of NI Water. NI Water itself has sent mixed signals to its stakeholders and has created extreme frustration because of its inconsistent and delayed approaches to the planning applications which cross its desk.
And finally, is there more the builders could do? The answer to that is, probably, they are certainly very willing to listen and be constructive, as things can’t get much worse.
In creating Build Homes NI (www.buildhomesni.com), the largest firms have taken a crucial step to speak with a singular voice, they now need to get round the table with NI Water and the minister and change the culture, structure, funding and performance of the housebuilding landscape here.
The transformation is possible, and the prize of a new home, as can be seen at Glenmona for instance, is very special, and one worth the collective, collaborative action required to achieve it.
- Paul McErlean is managing director of Cavendish Ireland.
