Mr. Niall Cody:

This is an area in which I have had a great deal of interest over the years because many representative groups keep saying to look at the ECB rate and that the rates are excessive. I say that people should look at overdraft, term loan and credit card rates. We cannot become - leaving debt warehousing aside - a bank. It is interesting to compare the situation with HMRC. It is not directly comparable with our rates because it has a late-filing surcharge for practically all of its payroll taxes and VAT. Its interest rate is linked, as the Deputy said, to the Bank of England. It is more linked to the financing rate. You have to add on its late-filing surcharge to get the effective rate. Last year, I started to worry as interest rates increased. Originally, our rates were higher. It was then reduced to 10% - it was 12%. We were starting to wonder, with the interest rate increasing, if we needed to look at it again. Indications are that it is stabilising again, so I am not as concerned. The debt warehouse has shown something really interesting. I asked the team to look at the possibility of further scope for flexibility in which there could be a once-off reduced rate. The model is there in the context of local property tax, where there is a deferred interest rate by agreement and eligibility. There is the non-filer rate. The warehouse has given some possibility to explore that. There is a challenge in working out how to influence behaviour. One does not want a change that encourages people who can pay not to pay. It is an interesting area.