The Construction Employers Federation (CEF) and Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations (NIFHA) have raised major concerns regarding the approved proposal to increase the Standard Connection Charge for a newbuild house by 123% in 2025.

The proposal, put forward by NIE Networks to the Utility Regulator, will see the current fee per dwelling increase from £1,094 to £1,974 from January, with a further increase to at least £2,445 in April 2025 for developments of 12 or more dwellings.

Both the CEF and NIFHA have engaged with NIE Networks and the Utility Regulator on this matter in recent months, specifically given the wider challenges to homebuilding and the in-year impact this will have on the funding allocation for newbuild social housing.  

Speaking on the matter, Mark Spence, Chief Executive of the CEF, said: "For some 15 years, Northern Ireland has, on an annual basis, built only around 50-60% of its new build housing need.

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"That has resulted in a dearth of new supply of housing of all types further exacerbating our social housing waiting list and the difficulties many have in being able to move from home rental to home ownership.

"Against a backdrop of a 60–year low of housing completions in 2023, it is unquestionable that we are therefore in the middle of a housing crisis in Northern Ireland."

He continued: "Given the extreme challenges that many homebuilders are facing in the context of the decades of underfunding of NI Water leading to the inability to connect many thousands of new homes to the network, any additional cost implication to building new homes given the unprecedented inflation of recent years must be thought through very carefully. 

"We do not believe that this 123% increase has been given the full and proper consideration that it needs in the context that homebuilders currently face and we would urge the Utility Regulator and NIE Networks to urgently rethink the implications of what they are enforcing".

Meanwhile, Seamus Leheny, Chief Executive of NIFHA, added: "The social housing waiting list is now over 48,000 applicants with over 36,000 of those applicants in acute housing stress, therefore we need to be building more social and affordable housing.

"Due to funding cuts this year to the Social Housing Development Programme, difficulties with NI Water and increasing inflationary costs in building new homes - this significant increase from NIE Networks will impact all new social housing delivery, creating 'the perfect storm'.

"This 123% increase from NIE now means it will cost housing associations more to deliver vital social & affordable homes.

"The increase cannot be absorbed by our members, resulting in higher repayment costs per home that impacts rents, which will put additional pressure on some of the most vulnerable people in our society."