Northern Ireland Water funding model ‘clearly not fit for purpose’

Mr Spence said his organisation was calling for an “independent expert-led review” into the way that Northern Ireland water is funded.

“Any reviews done to date have been done internally by the department, they’re marking their own homework,” he added.

“We’re not predetermining the outcome of that, I fear the minister is predetermining the outcome of that review.”

Mr Spence said the problem with developer contributions was that “this is not a small amount of money… you are talking millions of pounds”.

“If you’re only building a small number of houses, how on earth do you absorb that cost?” he said.

“You can only make that cost economically viable if you’re building a huge number of houses, or and this is problematic, if you’re building houses of such a cost that the very wealthiest are able to buy them.”

Mr Spence warned of creating a “two-tier water system here where only the wealthiest can afford to connect”.

He said that this “would be excluding social housing completely from that scenario”.

“I’m sure that’s not the minister’s intention,” he added.

The BBC has contacted the department for a response.