NI Water 'facing £7m shortfall'

Northern Ireland Water is facing a cash shortfall of up to £7m, according to its chairman.

Chris Mellor has outlined problems in the company's finances to the Assembly's Regional Development Committee.

He said that an error in thousands of business customers' bills should have been identified earlier.

"Those who have paid too much will be fully compensated," said a Northern Ireland Water spokeswoman.

"We have still to decide our approach towards those who have not paid enough.

'Unseasonably wet'

"Our approach will be based on ensuring fairness of treatment for all our customers and the taxpayer. Importantly, this issue will have no impact on households.

"In the area of revenue, a number of factors including unseasonably wet weather, a downturn in the housing market, difficult economic conditions and data quality appear to have combined to mean that less revenue than expected will be generated from business customers over the second half of this year."