Ms Lisa Clifford:

At the back of our mind always is the national planning framework and making sure we get the investments in the towns that have been identified for ERDF investments so they achieve the objectives they need to from a development perspective. The first two calls were very useful, as Ms Graham said, in terms of bringing forward projects that were already thought through and were a certain degree along the line. When we were looking back at both of the calls and reviewing once the announcements were made, it was very clear there were a number of areas where, from a national planning framework, NPF, perspective, we need investment but the right projects had not come through. That has influenced our thinking in terms of working more directly with the local authorities going forward, particularly those local authorities where we can see there are gaps in their development objectives where we need to target investment. That is what is guiding how we are going to develop the next call, moving slightly away from the more competitive element of it and really targeting the investment in those gap areas where, from an NPF perspective, the ERDF has not found the right project yet.