Debate contribution: Unadopted Housing Developments and Roads

Debate contribution by Mr Andrew McMurray on 11 November 2024.

MLA

Mr Andrew McMurray

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

11 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Unadopted Housing Developments and Roads

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4668130

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The problem of unadopted roads and developments is a long-standing issue, and there is a fair number of them in Northern Ireland. I am the third or fourth MLA to point out that there are now 1,868 unadopted developments in Northern Ireland. Of those, 170 are in the council area of Newry, Mourne and Down, which contains most of my South Down constituency. It contains the third highest number of unadopted developments after Mid Ulster and the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon council areas. The Committee for Regional Development undertook an inquiry into unadopted roads in 2012, and the Infrastructure Committee heard evidence from DFI in 2021. A similar motion to the one that we are debating today was tabled later that year. In other words, the issue has been discussed before. It is well known and understood, but it persists nonetheless. I understand that all new developments start out as unadopted, and often there is no issue at all: developers do what they are supposed to and the road to adoption is fairly smooth. However, where things go wrong, it can be a very significant problem for residents. We must not forget that this issue can cause real hardship for the people who are unable to sell their properties and, in the meantime, are dealing with completely unacceptable conditions. In my constituency, in Downpatrick, there is a development that is experiencing very serious problems with sewers and subsidence. It received some media coverage a while ago. The bond is insufficient to address the issues. DFI says that it wants to help to find a solution, but, because the ground continues to settle, repairs will not be possible until 2030. My constituents did not create that issue or problem but are now in the impossible scenario of not being able to sell their houses due to the inadequate infrastructure within the development. While that is the most serious of examples, it is not the only one. Putting the repairs off until 2030 seems decidedly unfair to these constituents. That example points to a bigger problem with some developers. We need to ensure that developers meet their obligations and build to an acceptable standard that does not cause problems further down the road. I understand that DFI has increased bond calculation rates to ensure that works can be completed to an adoptable standard if the developer defaults and that solicitors are also more aware of the issues than they were in the past. That will, hopefully, act as an incentive to developers to ensure that a bond is in place before they start work. Hopefully, all that will mean that substandard roads will become less of an issue in the future, but we still need to keep an eye on it to make sure that it is working. We also need to find solutions for the existing developments that cannot currently be adopted, especially those that have very serious problems and where the bond is inadequate or non-existent and where the developer has gone out of business. We just cannot abandon the residents who bought their homes in good faith and are facing the nightmare due to no fault of their own. From a housing perspective, we cannot afford to essentially take so many existing homes out of the market because they cannot be sold. Although the issue has been debated at length and for years, I have a couple of questions that I hope that the Minister will remark on. The first is in relation to staffing levels at DFI and the impact that that may have on enforcement and on the adoption of uncomplicated roads. The Minister intimated this in his interjection, and I am interested in how that affects capacity in the team dealing with the adoption of developments and whether the staffing situation in the team has improved or worsened in recent years. Also, is the backlog of roads to be adopted being reduced at all, or is any progress quickly being cancelled out by new cases entering the system? Finally, I want to raise the impact that capacity constraints might have in the future if we manage to overcome the waste water and planning issues that are restricting housing development at the moment. We want to see new homes being built, but is the Department actually able to cope with more new developments coming its way for adoption? Are we going to face a much bigger issue of unadopted roads in the future?

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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