Ms Maria Graham:

When we sent out the circular approving the increase and asking them to ensure there was a full-time officer, we also asked them to come back because, obviously, they had to put arrangements in place. We have had a number of people coming back but they all have to come back. The funding for the vacant homes officers was pre-funded up to June of this year so they are coming back to us over the coming months. We expect them all to be full-time and that is what we have asked for, and we do not have any indications otherwise. We expect to get a report for each authority over the coming months on the arrangements they have put in place. We had one session with all of the vacant homes officers in January. As many of the measures are rolled out, we expect we will be having further sessions with them.

We are looking more deeply at the resourcing of local authorities to deal with both planning and town centre issues and it may well show that more resources are required. We are working with the County and City Management Association, CCMA, to look at what gaps there may be at the moment, what future gaps there may be and what skills gaps there may be. That ultimately may lead to engagement with the third level sector to deal with the kind of skills that are required for the future. There is a piece of work under way on it that will be finished by the summer.