Deputy Chairperson, at present the housing backlog is 2,1 million. The major challenge in terms of housing is the issue of the availability of well-allocated land to build houses.
We have the Housing Development Agency, whose task is primarily to acquire land and to ensure that land and properties that are not utilised are acquired from state-owned enterprises so that we can refurbish them for the purpose of building houses.
We've also agreed to have a multipronged approach in terms of the building of houses. Firstly, there is the issue of medium density so as to ensure that the housing rental stock is in place. The billion rand we got from government now is to help the market to lend money to the lower end of the market - the people who cannot access housing subsidies because they are too rich, but too poor to get access to a bond. So, the billion rand is going to assist them in doing so.
Regarding the issue of instituting the upgrading of informal settlements, we are also going to ensure that this happens. We assist people through the community-driven approach, which is where people build their homes through the People's Housing Process, PHP.
Human settlement is now a priority for Cabinet. We had a Presidential Co- ordinating Council meeting on 18 May, where only human settlement was on the agenda. This is going to be followed up in July, as well as during the Housing Indaba on 4 October, UN Habitat Day.
On the second part of the question, we already have provinces that are piloting innovative ways of building houses. Gauteng, the Northern Cape, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape have pilot projects with regard to different forms of building houses - the technology thereof. We also have a conference that is coming up on innovative technology with regard to houses.
On the third part of the question regarding provinces, we have Gauteng with a backlog of 350 000 units, KwaZulu-Natal with 360 000 units, and the Western Cape with 300 000 units, as well as the Eastern Cape with 280 000 units. I thank you.