Mr. David O'Connor:

I will introduce myself by saying that housing has dominated my career, as an architect in private practice and in the public sector, both as a director of planning and as a chief executive in local government. Housing today is complex and vastly different compared with housing production when I started my career in the mid-1970s. It is intertwined with social, community, health and industrial policies, to name but a few. On the commission, I chaired the work on inquiries into demand, supply and delivery, with a remit to report on medium-term solutions.

Housing demand is primarily driven by the changing population dynamic. Sustained population growth combined with smaller household size is a fatal combination in one way. That combination will drive higher housing need that will grow year on year into the future. Forecasting housing need must now recognise this settled reality. Policy must address this fundamental change. When we add to that the perfect storm referred to by my two colleagues of the overhang of a decade of underprovision it means the continuation of current practice simply cannot cope. Exceptional measures and a system reset are now essential. For housing supply, this means upscaling our output, prioritising outcome over exerting control, a focus on practical priorities, sequencing infrastructure first, viability driven by reducing uncertainties and developing systems that are always measured against outcome. It is critical that outcome is the priority. Housing delivery in the past was primarily by local government. Housing is essentially a technical system. It must be about production, building homes and creating healthy, equitable and sustainable communities.

The increasing complexity of governance of democratic centred systems is an international problem. Complex systems inevitably mean subdivisions of function that develop their respective sectoral focus for themselves. Each becomes orientated on their own function and the governance of that. This kind of complexity is also found in large business entities. Taking hold of all this, and even identifying it, is best achieved by single-focus, outcome-centred, functionally independent, experienced people reporting on practical solutions for a programme of resolution – I stress that point – for those with overall responsibilities to make the decisions.