Debate contribution: Grants to Water and Sewerage Undertakers Order (Northern Ireland) 2027

Debate contribution by Ms Liz Kimmins on 29 September 2026.

MLA: Ms Liz Kimmins
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 29 September 2026
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Executive Committee Business
Heading: Grants to Water and Sewerage Undertakers Order (Northern Ireland) 2027
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5761279

Text

I beg to move
Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
The order extends the power for my Department to pay a grant to NI Water in lieu of domestic water charges. Members will be aware that it is the Executive's current policy and that of previous Executives that domestic consumers should not pay a separate charge for water and sewerage services. Instead, those services are funded through a subsidy paid by my Department to the water and sewerage undertaker, which is NI Water. The subsidy to NI Water is currently paid under article 213 of the Water and Sewerage Services (NI) Order 2006, as amended by the Water and Sewerage Services Act (NI) 2016, which has an end date of 31 March 2027. On 16 April 2026, the Executive agreed to the continuation of the policy of not implementing separate water charging for domestic customers. Therefore, to give effect to the Executive's decision for a further five years, a new statutory rule is required. I am therefore bringing forward the Grants to Water and Sewerage Undertakers Order (NI) 2027, which will extend the period during which a subsidy may be paid to NI Water to 31 March 2032. The order is subject to the draft affirmative resolution procedure, which is the purpose of the debate today. The five-year extension until 31 March 2032 will give the next Executive time to consider the future of funding for water and sewerage services. It also gives time for other policy proposals to be investigated, should the next Executive wish to do so. The order will reinforce the Executive's commitment not to introduce water charging for households, and I thank the Committee for Infrastructure for its support. NI Water is regulated by the Utility Regulator and operates according to its licence. The regulator identifies water and waste water investment need through its price control process. A lack of subsidy payments would see those critical services fall into disrepair, risking public health, curtailing economic growth and putting our environment at risk of pollution. NI Water's investment needs to deliver essential water and waste water services are currently defined in price control 21 (PC21), which is the seven-year investment period from 2021 to 2028, as agreed with the Utility Regulator. When the PC21 final determination was published in May 2021, the Utility Regulator recommended that NI Water should invest £2·1 billion in water and waste water services during the PC21 period. The Utility Regulator revised that funding requirement in September 2024 through a mid-term review process to account for rising inflation. The current position is that NI Water requires £2·37 billion over the PC21 period. My Department was able to fully fund NI Water for the first three years of the price control, but, since then, the constrained budget position that has arisen from the British Government's historic underfunding in the North of Ireland has meant that funding of the price control has been subject to budget availability in recent years, and the identified need has been unable to be met. However, while we still require significant capital investment in our network and despite the ongoing challenges, my predecessor Minister O'Dowd and I were able to provide an additional £30 million of funding to enable NI Water to unlock capacity for 5,300 properties over the next two to three years, exceeding the 4,500 connections that NI Water had originally planned to deliver by 2028 if PC21 were fully funded. I am pleased that the Executive have recently agreed to prioritise investment in waste water, recognising that water and waste water services are critical enablers for many other Executive priorities. The order will ensure that my Department can continue to fund NI Water through a subsidy. I am opposed to the introduction of domestic water charging, as I believe that it will impose an additional financial burden on people and families in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. I commend the motion to the Assembly and ask that it approves the order.

666 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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