UK MPs want domestic Northern Ireland water charges back on the table

MPs on a UK parliamentary committee have recommended that the Northern Ireland Executive should reconsider introducing domestic water charges.

Such a move could go some way to offset publicly-owned Northern Ireland Water’s (NI Water) chronic underfunding of creaking wastewater infrastructure. However, such a measure is currently beyond the pale politically.

The cross-party Northern Ireland Affairs Committee pointed out that Northern Ireland has the highest public spending per person in the UK but raises the least revenue per person. It relies predominantly on funding from the Treasury’s Block Grant to fund its public services which includes NI Water.

The UK Government requires Northern Ireland to raise more revenue itself. This is politically fraught, as it means charging people more, and it may disproportionately impact people on the lowest incomes.

Pivotal, a Northern Ireland public policy think tank, told MPs that the construction of 19,000 homes is currently unable to proceed because of wastewater capacity constraints.

The committee heard that introducing domestic water charges would not be a quick fix. It would take “a couple of years” to develop operational systems.

The MPs accepted that introducing water charges would be politically difficult, “but the public elect politicians who are expected to make difficult decisions and therefore the discussion should not be avoided”.

The committee heard that an additional charge of £800 per household (which would bring NI household charges into line with average water plus council tax payments in England) could raise an additional £615m per year.

But this would be a significant extra charge on households and would be strongly opposed by most if not all of NI’s politicians.