creating a housing market that is free of such imbalances, especially in cities. on top of that, it will make the housing market better aligned to the needs of the increasingly flexible and globalized labour market. however, since last year, the necessary progress on enlarging housing supply is still limited. a lack of planning and building capacity, as well as zoning restrictions, are impeding new - build developments in and around cities. moreover, lower - tier governments like municipalities lack effective incentives to develop the private rental sector. so it is up to the dutch government to take a more pro - active, leading role in ensuring an appropriate supply of new houses. they have the means to encourage municipalities to provide more private rental housing, for instance by setting minimum targets. in practice, this would mean that the government makes arrangements with municipalities about including a minimum percentage of mid - market rental housing in zoning plans. moreover, as a higher - level body, the national government can coordinate between localities and is less affected by local pressures, such as nimby ( not - in - my - backyard ) protests. therefore, i was very happy to hear, yesterday, the minister of the interior presenting a new housing agenda. this agenda is meant as an accelerator to ensure the construction of 75, 000 new houses each year until 2025. i think this is good initiative, all the more because a broad spectrum of housing market stakeholders is involved : builders, housing associations, home - owners, institutional investors and local governments. to me, this is a promising example of the leading role our government should play on the dutch housing market. our next speaker, whom i will introduce shortly, will speak more about the dutch government ’ s efforts in this field. as a central banker with a financial stability mandate, these housing market developments pose new challenges for risk analysis and possible policy responses. and i am sure you are all struggling with these challenges too. today ’ s and tomorrow ’ s seminar you are now all here in this room to discuss these issues under the watchful eye of our past presidents. and as you might have noticed from the programme, not only do you come from different countries, but also from divergent backgrounds. when organising this seminar, we wanted to avoid groupthink and promote a healthy exchange of views from different perspectives. so some speakers come from central banks and public bodies, others from academia or the private sector. and of course a seminar about major cities would not be complete without representatives from

possible, because prolonged under - funding has several harmful consequences. for instance, a financial shortfall has major consequences for participants in the event that the sponsor goes bankrupt. under - funding also precludes indexation, and eats into retirees ’ purchasing power. all this may be detrimental to the system ’ s durability. conclusion a durable pension system requires discipline, transparency and a strong pension industry. it is these three elements which the financial assessment framework seeks to achieve by ( 1 ) emphasising the identification of risks, ( 2 ) directing policy at preventing deficits, and ( 3 ) customising any remedies, should the deficits arise after all. this is how the regulator contributes to the durability of the pension system and a correspondingly durable pension industry. here, today and in the future.