To ask the Minister of the Environment what recent engagement he has had with district councils in respect of utilising council space which will now be vacant following the reformed council structures, from April 2015.

The rationalisation of the current configuration of 26 councils to create 11 new councils will require the transfer of ownership of council accommodation from the current councils to the new councils.

Provisions have been included in the Local Government Act (NI) 2014 to facilitate the transfer of the legal title of the assets, and the liabilities associated with those assets, to the new local government structure without incurring any costs to either the existing or new councils.

Any decision regarding the use of current council accommodation will be a matter for the new councils, and will be one of the issues that new councils should be considering. I have encouraged the new councils to be ambitious in how they can maximise the use of their estate to cut costs, whilst maintaining the levels of service that ratepayers deserve.