AQW 13008/17-22


Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford


Tabled Date: 20/01/2021
Answered On Date: 29/01/2021
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure what agreement has been reached with the Minister for Communities to target water infrastructure, particularly wastewater treatment works, in areas where the need for social housing is most acute and cannot continue unless such works are updated or installed.


Answer:
My Social and Environmental Guidance (‘the Guidance’) for Water and Sewerage Servcies, developed with input from key water stakeholders, sets out my social and environmental policies and priorities for water and sewerage services, for each six year Price Control period.
The Guidance was subject to a public consultation and approval by the NI Executive, which provided an opportunity for the Minister for Communties to comment on the proposed priorities.
NI Water uses the Guidance to inform its Business Plan, and it is considered by the Utility Regulator in setting priorities for each Price Control period. The Business Plan includes a prioritised list of proposed schemes, which is agreed by all key water stakeholders.
It is vital that NI Water receives the necessary strategic level of funding from the Executive so that it can begin to resolve the wastewater capacity issues within so many areas. It will take multi-year certainty of funding of NI Water to deliver the PC21 Business Plan that is needed to begin transforming this essential infrastructure so that we can build the many affordable and social homes our citizens need. Therefore, a long-term funding commitment from the Executive is required to address the current state of water and wastewater infrastructure. I continue to make this case to Executive colleagues and wrote to the Executive jointly with Minsiter Poots as recently as 21 December 2020 setting out the compelling case for further investment, in terms of the economic, social and environmental impact of underinvestment in water and wastewater.
In addtion, officials from my Department have engaged with, and will continue to engage with, officials from the Department for Communities to discuss areas of high housing need. I have led on identifying the need for closer co-operation across local and central government in commissioning the analysis of such matters through the independent Ministerial Advisory Panel on Infrastructure and, indeed, I support the Panel’s recommendation that an Infrastructure Commission, with a clear remit and the support of the entire Executive, should be established as soon as practical.