Dr. Donal McManus:

There is a communication protocol between local authorities and approved housing bodies and the different types of housing development they undertake, whether it is new build on local authority sites, developer-led initiatives, Part V building or building on a housing association's own land. With regard to local-authority-owned land, some local authorities have their own programmes that they want to develop at the same time, so there may be less land available. Another context is that some local authorities have historical debt on their land and some of the land may have been put into the land aggregation scheme. There may be costs incurred in that regard. The housing associations have in the past tended to have bilateral discussions with local authorities to see if housing would be suitable in an area.

Now it goes through a more structured protocol. If a site is available, the local authority will contact a number of associations and see what is the best fit for that site. Also, it is more transparent in terms of who gets the site. In the past, the low-cost site was a real trigger that local authorities had. It was a real trigger for our sector and for people building their own homes. Thousands of sites were provided for our sector and it worked well. The scheme diminished in recent years and we are trying to get something like it activated. The mapping exercise the Housing Agency-----