Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

I take the point about land that is freely available. When I said that land should be freely available subject to infrastructure being available, the basic point is that we need land to be available for housing. In countries where land is more freely available, by which I mean that it is ready for housing to be built on it, there is less fluctuation in prices. Infrastructure is a key issue. Some people have talked about the vacant site levy. Different rates could apply depending on the different levels of infrastructure available for the properties concerned.

A couple of years ago I wrote about how European fiscal policy had been so poorly managed as far as the financial crisis was concerned. I compared the response of the European authorities to what was done in, for example, the United States, which had a fiscal stimulus. Some people may criticise the fiscal stimulus as not being sufficient but it compares well to European economic performance, which is certainly quite sluggish at present. In the past ten years, Europe has been far slower in coming out of the financial downturn than the United States was. Initially, even the UK came out of it more quickly. There is a plausible case to be made for substantial fiscal stimulus, and housing would have been a logical component of that. That should be considered going forward. Monetary policy, as governed by the European Central Bank, is doing all that it can and more, especially under Mr. Draghi, to keep the European economy going with its accommodative monetary policy. Its statements are clear that fiscal policy needs to start to support and promote economic activity. Unfortunately, European fiscal policy has not responded in that fashion. One could argue about the mechanisms, ways and means by which one could achieve that. A Europe-wide fiscal response may require more co-ordination across member states with regard to taxation issues, which gives rise to certain issues here. Nonetheless, I think there is a strong case to be made for a far more expansionary role of a Europe-wide fiscal stance. The provision of social and affordable housing would be a logical component of that.