Debate contribution: Defective Premises Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on 2 July 2024.

MLA

Mr Gordon Lyons

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

2 July 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Defective Premises Bill: Final Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4529033

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

I begin by thanking the Executive, the Committee for Communities and Members for their cross-party support for this important Bill at all stages of its progress under the accelerated passage procedure. I welcome the final opportunity to explain why I am pleased to have progressed this vital legislation with urgency for the benefit of all Northern Ireland citizens. I should also like to address some of the concerns raised by local industry. The ultimate driver for the Bill is my firm belief in the principle that our citizens should have the same legal protections in respect of defective premises as their counterparts elsewhere in the United Kingdom. The Bill will amend the Defective Premises (Northern Ireland) Order 1975 and the Limitation (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 and will extend the duty to cover works done in relation to an existing building. The Bill will amend the Limitation Order in respect of the time periods in which action may be taken in Northern Ireland when defects occur in dwellings or in buildings that contain dwellings. It will extend the limitation period in which legal action may be brought from the current six years to 15 years prospectively and to 30 years retrospectively. The proposed legislation is intended to capture cases brought using the Defective Premises Order that are ongoing, including those that are under appeal. The Bill ensures that citizens in Northern Ireland are afforded the same opportunity as those in England and Wales to address defects that have caused their homes to be uninhabitable. The Executive recognised the urgent need to address the disparity that currently exists and close the gap between the privileges enjoyed in England and Wales and those afforded to our citizens. It was for that reason that I undertook to introduce the legislation at the earliest possible opportunity and requested accelerated passage. I am aware, as are other Members, of the concerns raised by the local construction industry about the potential impact of the Bill. It is important to note that this legislation is only a small part of a much wider suite of legislation that my officials are working on that will further match the protection provided to citizens in England and Wales under the Building Safety Act 2022. That will reduce even further the disparity between here and other jurisdictions with regard to residential building safety and will ultimately further strengthen and support the protections available to Northern Ireland's citizens. While the urgency demanded by the legislation did not permit extensive engagement across industry, I assure Members that my officials will engage comprehensively with all relevant stakeholders on the much larger body of work associated with residential building safety. In bringing the Bill forward, I have carefully considered the representations made by industry practitioners and weighed them against the potential human cost to owners of defective premises in terms of financial hardship, mental anguish and the potential to prevent loss of life. The legislation is not being introduced with the intention of targeting an industry but with the ultimate aim of protecting homeowners in the rare instances where things go wrong. By way of example, the ongoing High Court case has highlighted the fact that the costs associated with defective premises can and, indeed, have run into the many millions of pounds. The overall cost, of course, does not take into account any detrimental impact on the owner's health and well-being. Additionally, we are all too aware, as a result of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, of the potential risk to human life when it goes disastrously wrong. To put the potential impact of the Bill on the construction industry into perspective, it should be said that, on the whole, the Northern Ireland construction industry is hallmarked by its resilience and the quality of the work that it delivers. As a consequence, situations as highlighted by the current High Court case are, thankfully, the exception. In fact, in Northern Ireland, there have been only three cases in the nearly 50 years of the legislation being in place that cite the 1975 Order. Simply put, claims arising as a result of homes becoming uninhabitable under defective premises legislation are rare indeed, not because the existing legislation is irrelevant or there is only a six-year liability period but rather, I would suggest, because of the quality of the local construction industry and that of our design professionals. That is evidenced by the fact that we simply do not frequently see homes being deemed uninhabitable in Northern Ireland.

In lieu of extensive engagement at this stage, in order to determine how the Bill might impact on our local construction industry, my officials have looked to England and Wales, as the same provisions have been in effect there for two years. Indeed, many of our local industry's construction professionals have been operating for the past two years across jurisdictions under those provisions. Whilst I am aware that this legislation is likely to impact on the cost of insurance products, such as professional indemnity for designers, I also understand that the industry in England and Wales has been adapting to those challenges for the past two years. However, I stress that there has been no evidence in England and Wales of a significant increase in claims arising under the new legislation during that time. Given that claims are so infrequent, my officials have been liaising with their counterparts in the UK and have begun work to prevent insurance companies unfairly profiteering from construction professionals as a result of the legislation, in much the same way as they have done to protect residents of high-rise buildings from extortionate insurance costs while their buildings are being remediated from unsafe cladding. My officials will continue to maintain close liaison with colleagues in other jurisdictions to monitor that position. I suggest that any increase in costs or the challenge to our construction industry must be considered and measured in the context of costs and suffering that have already been borne by some of our citizens and the cost and pain and potential loss of life that the legislation will help to prevent. The Bill represents an important first stage of a wider substantive piece of work to create a new building safety environment in Northern Ireland, and that will, of course, be subject to extensive and formal consultation. Subject to the Assembly passing the Bill today, it will come into effect on the day after Royal Assent. It will address the unfair disparity in legal protections that currently exists regarding defective premises in Northern Ireland. I hope that all parties can give the Bill their full support today, and I commend it to the Assembly.

1,114 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:56 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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