Mr. Robert Deegan:

I do not know whether 100,000 need to be upgraded. They are all at different levels. I do know they are moving to a planned approach to maintenance and upgrade. In order to do that, you first have to know exactly what the housing stock is like. As I understand it, we are in the middle of a process of getting a much better picture of what their housing stock actually looks like at national and local authority level. That will allow the local authorities to better target and to ensure that the houses that really need the works are done. The people who really have the expertise in this are the local authorities. I know that councillors at local level will engage with the local authorities to ensure that attention is brought to the councils about the housing areas that need to be focused on.

There is also a BER map where we can see, geographically and colour-coded, the good and better performing parts of the housing stock and the bits that are really in need of work. In many cases, these are the mixed tenure estates where all the houses were owned by the local authorities at one stage but many of them have been bought out. It is often the people in the private houses in those housing estates who are least able to upgrade their properties. The local authorities pay for everything in terms of the upgrade for the local authority housing stock. Those in the private houses may not be eligible for the warmer homes scheme so that means they may have to make a contribution and may not be in a position to do that. Hopefully the loan scheme will help to fill the gap where people do not meet the criteria for the warmer homes scheme. The option is the fully funded upgrade for people who are eligible for that scheme. The Deputy mentioned people who need a little bit of extra help in managing their energy use and making a decision to go through the process of upgrading.