Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I want to focus on the Housing Alliance. I have been a councillor for more than 20 years and I have been an observer of housing. I have engaged in and I am really interested in this area. I acknowledge the approved housing bodies, AHBs. I am a great supporter of approved housing bodies, absolutely. It is important that we have a multifaceted approach with different people doing different things in housing. My experience of Circle, Clúid and the whole lot of them is excellent. This is not to be critical of the local authorities here, but I must tell the committee that my experience of AHBs is that they run a tighter regime around tenants, with good structures around pre-tenancy and tenancy. I hear a lot of people complaining: "With AHBs you cannot get away with anything with that shower." But I love to hear that. The approved housing bodies run a tight show. They have pre-screening on the courses and so on. I am aware that local authorities also do that but I have been on these schemes and I have many friends who were in them, and there is a level of quality around the maintenance of the management structures and the sense of responsibility by the people that are in them is strong. That is my take from it. It might be a rigorous approach and it might be firm but at the end of the day this is an asset that provides people with homes. We are not providing people with castles, we are providing them with homes. I really liked it when Ms Loftus spoke about the focus being the one thing, which is delivering affordable and sustainable homes for people. I personally do not get hung up on the idea of home ownership and who is building it, be it the private sector or syndicates or anybody else. This is important to say. My feedback and experience has been one of a real tight ship, and that is right.

The big key ask the alliance spoke about in its submission is the real need for development land and the challenges around that. I want to hear how this is frustrating the alliance members' progress, and what more it could do if it had more land available. Perhaps the alliance will also speak to the committee about its relationship with the Land Development Agency. That agency has done a lot of good work. We are now getting a handle on what lands the local authorities and State agencies have. That is really important. I would like to hear what the witnesses have to say around all of that, because that is the key takeaway from me here today; if the alliance had more affordable land, suitable and appropriate for the development of new homes, it would be able to rise to the challenge. Will Mr. Curran clarify the City and County Management Association, CCMA, position on capacity? Is there any spare capacity to release zoned or appropriate land for housing to the approved housing body sector? I am happy to take away from Mr. Curran, representing the CCMA, that his priority is direct build by local authorities. That is a really strong message I am taking away from the CCMA here today and it is one that I welcome. I would like to see what are the possibilities the CCMA can assist the Housing Alliance with. I will now hand over to the alliance and the CCMA for the remainder of my allotted time.