Household water charges return to Northern Ireland’s political agenda
The fraught political issue of domestic water charging in Northern Ireland has resurfaced following comments by the new Northern Ireland secretary, Hilary Benn.
During his first appearance before the Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee to discuss Stormont’s current budgetary difficulties, the Labour minister noted that the Northern Ireland Executive had decided not to raise finance from various sources including household water rates.
“There has been a long debate about water charges in Northern Ireland, now there are plenty of people in Northern Ireland who could well afford to pay water charges,” he said.
“But if you don’t make use of the means that are available to you to raise funding, then it is going to be more difficult to balance the budget,” the minister argued.
Currently the development of 19,000 homes in 23 cities and towns is held up because of lack of capacity in the region’s wastewater system. And, according to the chief executive of the publicly owned Northern Ireland Water, Sarah Venning, the system is at “breaking point” because the utility is operating with a budget of "nearly half” of what is required.
The Northern Ireland Executive has ruled out domestic water charges for now. Infrastructure minister John O’Dowd has been urged to consider different governance models for NI Water including mutualisation. “All alternative models that have been brought to my attention thus far involve domestic water charges; I am not introducing [them],” he insisted.
Meanwhile, the Executive has announced that a budgetary settlement means Northern Ireland Water is receiving a funding boost of £31 million, £19.5m of which is capital funding for targeted action to overcome wastewater constraints.
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