Northern Ireland Water

Parent Company:         Northern Ireland Government

Regulated utility:           Northern Ireland Water Ltd

Ownership:                     Public sector

Northern Ireland Water was established in April 2007 as a Government Owned Company (GoCo). It is a statutory trading body wholly owned by the Northern Ireland Government to provide water and sewerage services in Northern Ireland. It supplies water to around 1.7 million people.

In establishing Northern Ireland Water it has been modeled on the successful approach adopted in England. The most important difference is that water is still paid for in Northern Ireland via general taxation.

The regulatory set-up in Northern Ireland has also been modeled on England. The Utility Regulator's Water Directorate was established in April 2007. The Water Directorate aims to regulate the water utility in a way that encourages and incentivises Northern Ireland Water to achieve the highest possible service for customers in terms of quality and value. Its duties are basically the same as Ofwat.

Northern Ireland Water has suffered from years of under investment and consequently performance in areas such as sewer flooding and water mains leakage are well behind those in mainland Britain. This came to a head in late December 2010 with frost and then the rapid thaw causing major water bursts and the loss of water supply to many consumers for 12 days compounded by poor emergency planning. Subsequently the CEO resigned. It has raised again the issue of under investment and how this should be funded - introducing water bills is seen as politically unacceptable. In the last three year Strategic Business Plan (ended in March 2010) £778 million was invested. Some of the work has been delivered by PFI/DBFO type contracts. For example Project Alpha to upgrade about 50% of Northern Ireland's water production is being implemented by Dalriada Water Ltd under a 25 year operating and maintenance contract.

In the next regulatory period 2010-2013 Northern Ireland Water has to deliver over £560M of capital investment, reduce operating costs and close the 49% operational efficiency gap between NI Water and the English and Welsh water companies.