David Ireland is Chief Executive of World Habitat. David has worked in housing all his life for local authorities, government, the media, and charities. He was former chair of Action Homeless and is an associate of the Centre for Comparative Housing Studies at the DeMontfort University. He is a published author and has worked as a housing advisor for TV series on BBC and Channel 4.
He was previously Chief Executive of the Empty Homes Agency where he persuaded successive UK governments to introduce legislation and fund programmes to get empty homes into use. He was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to housing.