Are big problems more difficult to solve?

Large problems become harder mainly because of their complexity, but the systems built to manage them can entrench failure. Temporary supports may grow into permanent industries with their own bureaucracies, budgets and political interests, shifting attention from solving the crisis to sustaining the machinery around it. Los Angeles illustrates the danger: Skid Row holds more than 5,000 people, while a response that expanded over decades absorbed billions without reliably delivering results. Under Proposition HHH, supportive-housing costs rose from an estimated $375,000 to $600,000-$837,000 per unit, and an audit found that the regional homelessness agency could not accurately track $2.4 billion in spending.

The proposed alternative is to make problems manageable at a human scale by decentralising work and dismantling obstructive structures - not merely adding new frontline roles. Bromford reduced housing-coach caseloads from 600-800 homes to 175-200, enabling closer relationships with residents and local services. Yet functional divisions, budgets and targets remained unchanged, limiting the effect; NHS trials of self-managing neighbourhood nursing teams similarly showed that teams’ autonomy could not overcome surrounding systems’ controls and constraints. Bromford’s planned shift to about 121 semi-autonomous teams therefore requires changing how targets, budgets, management, information and decisions are organised. The first phase launched in summer 2026, with transformation continuing toward 2031. Decentralisation risks inconsistent practice and can provoke renewed oversight, so the challenge is to support local teams without rebuilding the bureaucracy they are meant to replace.