Professor John McHale:

I take that point. There are other uncertainties as well. If scaling back the adjustments were to undermine the hard-won credibility that we have achieved on the borrowing side, the spectre of falling back from the progress we have made over the past number of years could also be a significant hit to confidence. It can work in different ways.

I take Deputy Kevin Humphreys's general point. There is a lot of uncertainty around that particular multiplier figure and there are many factors that feed into it.