Ms Sarah Cooney:

On STAR, I do not have overall responsibility for the scheme so I do not have information to hand on some of the Deputy's questions about the levels. I could talk to colleagues in the Department about that.

The reason for the different funding models in place for cost rental is sometimes related to the different characteristics and structures of the different providers. The affordable housing fund, AHF, is a grant available to local authorities, whereas with CREL it is loan and equity and then STAR covers private developers, the LDA and AHBs, if they wish to apply for it. That is an equity model. However, in terms of consistency and the impact that has on the rent, the Housing Agency assesses all applications under those schemes and has oversight and an understanding of the rents that come out of them. It, therefore, provides consistency in terms of what the rents might be coming out of the different schemes. The different schemes that are in place all provide that the rent must be at least 25% below market rent.