Mr. Paul Hogan:

The first thing I would say is there are two elements to this. The first is the national planning framework to 2040. The national planning framework to 2040, as published, refers to approximately 50,000 because that was where our calculations were at when drafting it. Since then, we have worked with our housing policy colleagues to further assess and estimate what we believe to be unmet demand. That is based on the methodology that I will ask my colleague, Mr. David Dalton, to come in on in a minute.

The decision to publish figures with regard to housing supply to 2030 is separate to the national planning framework. The national planning framework is based on an annual average over the full period to 2040. We have firmed up on our assessment of that figure to just under 54,000 over the full period, and as the Deputy rightly said, that has to be worked up to. As you are working up to it, clearly there is a continuing unmet demand that has to be addressed then post achieving the target. We are looking at the NPF as an overarching national document to cover the full period. Once finalised, that will then enable the targets to be broken down for local government delivery or across the different planning authorities, while also factoring in the range of sources of housing, for example, vacancies.