Ms Colette Bennett:

I thank the Chair very much. I could not agree more with the Deputy on the escalating numbers of people who are in need of accommodation, whether that is a home at all, in respect of the numbers of people accessing emergency homeless accommodation or whether that is people who are in unaffordable or overcrowded accommodation. That is an issue which needs to be addressed.

There is this overarching objective which we need to bear in mind when we talk about this report and that is what we need to deal with. The Deputy refers to over-taxation but that tax goes into the Central Fund, which is then paying for services and infrastructure, as well as things like the emergency accommodation the 10,500 people are accessing and the social housing that needs to be built, maintained and retrofitted. There is an important connection which we need to bear in mind at all times between taxation and the public services which we get.

On the disincentive to buy land, we again need to have some clarity around the fact that there is no new land and that this land exists. For example, we have over 40,000 planning permissions which are ready to go but are not being activated.

Measures such as a site value tax or the recommendations in chapter 14 on land and property act as an incentive to use the planning permissions that are in place and to create the homes that are desperately needed.

The Deputy spoke about zoned land. Again, it is the tie-in between the public and the private. The majority of the infrastructure around the zoned land and its uplift in value is paid for by the public purse. There needs to be a benefit in kind in terms of a reciprocity so that you use it or you pay for it. That makes a more equitable system overall between the taxation and the property sides.