Mr. Tom Dunne:

As I said in my opening statement, I have just retired and I was asking myself what I would do. I saw the advert and decided I would be really interested in doing it, especially given the fact that I had been there before. One retains an interest in certain things. I have a knowledge of the creation of the legislation and the reasons it was created as it was, as well as the nuanced judgments that were made in framing the different sections of the Act. It is important to maintain that understanding and the possibility of becoming chair gives me the opportunity to try to influence the discussions about how the sector will evolve, which I believe it will do.

I expressed a view in 2010 or 2011 in the middle of the recession that when we emerged from it, the private rented sector would be a larger part of the housing system and that the importance of legislation relating to the sector would be crucial to having a good housing system. I have an interest in it and I would be happy to spend the next five years of my life watching that creation that I was part of at the beginning. That is the motivation. I have the time to do it. In fact, one of the problems I had the last time is that I had an onerous job as chairman of the board and I found it difficult to manage that with a full-time job. I do not mind admitting that. It was very time-consuming. My poor wife had to endure me reading board material on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and she could not come near me, but now I have the time.