Debate contribution: Defective Premises Bill: Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Colin McGrath on 11 June 2024.

MLA

Mr Colin McGrath

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

11 June 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Defective Premises Bill: Consideration Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4495960

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for my late addition to the list of Members to speak. I appreciate being called. I welcome the amendment that my colleagues tabled. I want to speak for the many people whose homes are in danger owing to circumstances beyond their control. Last week, during the Second Stage debate, I referenced the pain felt by residents of Hunter's Mill in my constituency. The development is, in part, sinking. The houses are listing, and some have been knocked down. The sewerage infrastructure is compromised, and the development's roads are uneven. NI Water has suggested that it might be 30 years before the land settles and it can do any work on the sewers, because otherwise they will simply give way once again. That has caused a difficulty with flushing toilets in some houses and with water flowing away. The road in that small development is bumpy in places, and, as a result of the land movement, it has not been adopted. Here is a list of things that the residents are facing: their neighbours' houses have already been knocked down because they were collapsing; the sewerage pipes are cracking and giving way, which is causing sewage issues; the road network is breaking up and unadopted, which causes problems for bin collections; and no yellow grit boxes have been placed in the development, because it has not been adopted. All of that became evident after the 10-year deadline had passed for residents to use the new building insurance scheme. They have struggled to rest easy. They are having difficulty sleeping at night. They cannot sell their houses, because people cannot get mortgages to purchase them. One significant issue is that, when planning was approved, the houses were not on the floodplain, but the floodplain has moved. Subsequent planning decisions resulted in its redirection, and that has compromised residents' homes. Planning applications in other parts of the town have thus contributed to the pain that the residents are feeling. That is why the amendment may give them some hope, because proposed new article 4B(1)(d) states:

"any other construction details as the Department may consider appropriate".

There is an opportunity, if the amendment were to pass, for the Department to assess whether external decisions resulted in the state that the homes are in. Like the residents of Victoria Square, as well as other examples on these islands, those people bought their home in good faith. The houses are, in some instances, crumbling around them. The houses are not functioning as they should, and the residents are being left to deal with the situation, because they purchased them when none of the issues was evident. The amendment would provide some support and give the residents a glimmer of hope that, down the line, there may be a resolution. The residents have invested their life savings in their home, which is being ruined before their eyes. I therefore hope that the situation can be assessed as a result of the amendment, which I support.

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

Assessment

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