Dr. Peter Bacon:

The easy part of the question relates to the tax measures because it is an event. There is a finance Bill or supplementary finance Bill. There is a piece of legislation and the event either happens or it does not. All the tax and fiscal recommendations that were made in the reports were implemented. I highlighted one of them being reversed in 2000 or 2001. With regard to the supply-side enhancement measures, the 1999 and 2000 reports contained sections which assess the extent to which measures proposed in the previous report were implemented and what the impact was under four headings. Those headings were price and price stability, affordability and supply-side response. In the latter two reports, there was consideration of impact on the rented sector, which was something not considered at all in the first report.

In trying to answer the question of whether those supply measures were implemented, I point out that these were not an event. They form a process. The principal recommendation on the supply side related to the policies relating to residential densities. Members are either Deputies or Senators, and they will know from constituency work that densities are not an easy subject. It is easy for economists and planners to make recommendations but there are major issues with that topic. What I can state factually is there was a tendency over the period and subsequently for residential densities to rise. Did they rise enough and could they have risen more? Did they rise fast enough? These are judgments and some of these issues are still ongoing.