madam president firstly i would like to thank the commissioner for clarifying some of the points which were raised in the questions
it has to be said that the provision of a house is an absolute necessity for everybody particularly in the modern welfare state
having a roof over your head is absolutely vital it is a right and is something which everyone would agree that should be provided either through one's own means or through government agencies etc
having said that there is a debate to be had on how much interference the government of any particular country should have in the provision of housing
in my own country the property bubble was created by tax incentives which were too generous and not well thought out for builders to build houses and providing them with the planning permission sometimes even in flood plains which have since been flooded and rezoning land which should not have been rezoned
then of course the banks chipped in by giving generous loans to builders which they could not pay back and to individuals to purchase houses which they could not pay back
we therefore have the crisis we have at the moment
so there are a lot of questions there on how involved the state should be in the whole property development area
however in the provision of social housing i think firstly basing it on income is just too prescriptive and does not make any sense for the reasons given by many people
there is definitely a role i think for the commission in the broader sense perhaps in giving guidelines on the provision of social housing but to be too prescriptive in regard to such things as income etc
does not make sense it will not work and it should not be attempted
