Dr Emma Howard

So a lot of people with spare bedrooms in the country.

However, if you look at the taxpayers in 2023 who claimed for the rent and room relief, that was about 4%.

So 4% of people who had two or more spare bedrooms were taking up this scheme.

So if you think about renting out your spare bedroom, it's essentially free, there's no upfront cost.

But if you're looking at, so, you know, some of these modular units, it's 80,000 or above, it seems, to get these put in your back garden.

Plus, if you look at who's, if the legislation is there,

So that, you know, you have to be far back from a boundary, not take up all of the garden.

You're looking at high income households and how many of them are going to need that money, you know, and want to invest to do this.

So I think the biggest take up is going to be families who have

grown-up children who are living at home who want their own space.

So it's going to be a small... It's going to have very negligible impact, I think, on rental prices or on the housing crisis overall.

No, it's not.

And we saw the inflation figures for last month.

We were already at 3.6% inflation.

That was primarily driven by an increase in energy costs last month and we're likely to see it continue.

There's a huge amount of uncertainty because it really depends on how long this conflict lasts and whether or not it escalates or there's some kind of an agreement.

But we're seeing now with the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz,

that is likely to reduce the supply of oil globally.

And, you know, we're seeing warnings now that this may lead to a lack of supply in Europe and the US.

So it has the potential to get worse when it comes to energy, but also it is going to have an impact on other costs.