Ms Sarah Neary:

On the approval process, I will begin by describing how all construction projects follow the same sort of format and stages. There is concept and then preparing and going through the planning process. There is detailed design, tendering process and assessment, which comes before getting on-site with boots on the ground. That process is followed by all local authority social housing projects as well and the approval process with the Department knitting into those stages at key points. The process has been reduced from nine stages under the capital works management framework to a four-stage process that we agreed with the County and City Management Association, CCMA, to work as effectively and as efficiently as possible, reflecting the normal process for construction process.

Going back to the framework of construction projects, the Department has approval stages after capital appraisal. The local authority prepares a capital appraisal and it establishes the need and particulars of the project, including type and number of units, as well as how it integrates with the local community, cost, the programme and the delivery mechanism. The Department reviews that, including need, optimisation of land, integration into the community from the perspective of the sustainable communities programme, suitability of the site and the accommodation to match that need. The value of this, separate from the requirements under the capital works framework, the cost certainty, value-for-money and accountability side, is that it adds a national consistency to standards, the housing itself and the cost. It gives a national perspective.

The second stage is when there is more detail on the project in preparing to go to planning, and that is both a design overview and a cost review. The project then goes through the planning process, generally Part VIII and a detailed design process. They take time and they are with the local authority. There is a pre-tendering cost assessment. We do not go back reviewing designs and it only relates to cost; that is a relatively quick process. The tendering process is next and after that there is a tender assessment, which is reviewed by the Department purely on a cost basis. The project then continues to site. This is a normal enough process for the construction process.