It is Jennie Daly’s view that the UK needs a proper housing strategy. For her, that means a “national land-use strategy that planning can help deliver” – a national plan by another name.

Now you might think it rather odd that the chief executive of Taylor Wimpey – the UK’s second-biggest housebuilder by turnover – is making the case for more planning, but then Daly is by no means your average listed housebuilder chief executive .

Because not only is Daly a former local authority planner – gamekeeper turned poacher, perhaps – the Derry-born executive’s appointment to her £756,000 a-year role last year also marked the first time that a woman had ever been named to the top job in a listed UK housebuilder.

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