CIAT President meets NI Finance Minister

The Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA) met with the Finance Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, as part of a delegation from the Northern Ireland Construction Group (NICG) which brings together the leading construction professional and trade bodies in the region.

The group, which included CIAT President Eddie Weir, received a briefing from officials on the progress in introducing improved building regulations in relation to fire safety and energy performance/decarbonisation and an update on the development of a new public procurement policy to align with introduction of parts of the new Procurement Act in late October 2024.

NICG stressed the importance of adequate funding for waste water infrastructure to enable development and the need to increase funding for social housing.

Speaking after the meeting, Ciarán Fox, RSUA Director, said:

I want to thank the Minister for listening to the industry’s concerns and our ideas for delivering improvements to our built environment. Whilst energy efficiency regulations took a leap forward in June 2022, progress has been slow since then. Whilst there is a lot of detail to work through on the next uplift in standards, I have asked the Minister to set a date by which all new homes will be required to have a low-carbon heat source.

We also discussed the potential of using the rating system to incentivise higher levels of decarbonisation of new buildings ahead of the regulations being updated. I suggested something along the lines of the rate relief scheme for energy efficient homes that was successful back in 2010. Acknowledging the need to balance the books, I suggested the Minister could increase rates on car parks, particularly surface car parks. 

The Finance Minister is also responsible for a large amount of the government’s office estate. We recently heard about plans for 40% of the estate to be disposed of over the next 4 years. I urged the Minister to consider not just seeking the highest price for the offices being sold but to run a competition seeking bids based on creative re-use that would aid regeneration.

However, the overarching problem at the moment is waste water infrastructure. The underinvestment means we have our waterways being polluted with raw sewage, we have development brought to a standstill in many places and dereliction on the increase. I highlighted to the Minister the inherent unfairness in the current system which creates a postcode lottery for anyone developing. If you’re lucky and your area has the appropriate infrastructure you get to connect for free, if you’re unlucky you may have to pay hundreds of thousands to get a connection. This needs addressed urgently.

I look forward to working with the Minister and her team to progress these issues over the coming months.