Ms Tina Donaghy:

Yes. What we have now is a more streamlined approach across the supply chain of social housing right from the top. The local authorities have a tracker. All the housing bodies engage and we have a protocol with the various local authorities in whose areas we want to work. It is a process whereby we apply and say what our capacity is both in terms of ability to deliver and the financial capacity. We put in a bid for what we can deliver, whether it be five houses or up to 100 houses. It is up for renewal at present and we are working collectively with the local authorities to get the new protocol in place, and the Housing Agency is co-ordinating that.

Then there is the tracker. If somebody came to me with a site today and the person was at the Peter McVerry Trust with the same site, as soon as I telephone the local authority it will tell me that the Peter McVerry Trust was there first and it has an engagement there. We do not want to compete with developers, housebuilders and landowners. That will only end up pushing up the price. Likewise, the local authorities call the shots because they are the sanctioning authority for all our funding through CAS, CALF and the payment and availability, P and A, agreement. They have to sanction everything that we do. There is absolutely no way we will be competing with them. If they have the finance and want to take the units on, we have to let that go because they are our bread and butter and are bigger than us. We work very well with the local authorities. We engage with them and make sure that what we are delivering is what they want, is going to meet the needs of the people on the housing waiting list and can enhance the communities in which we operate.

Housing is our main gig; that is all we do. We can bring forward a very professional housing management and maintenance service that is dedicated to and bespoke for the client group with which we are engaging. We work very well with the local authorities and we are happy to look at any opportunities they may want us to look at, for example, if they think it is specialist they will ask us to look at it because it is not really for them. Likewise, if it is a Part V or something they want to do themselves, that is fair.