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City Hall urges housing associations to sign up to diversity pledges
Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for housing has written to housing associations urging them to sign up to five recommendations to improve diversity.
James Murray last night emailed chief executives across the capital to encourage them to back measures suggested in a review carried out by consultancy Altair for Leadership 2025 – a new nine-month leadership programme aimed at helping senior BME housing professionals to become sector leaders.
The five recommendations:
1. Report annually on key diversity statistics
2. Set aspirational targets for your board and committee recruitment from under-represented groups
3. Interview more diverse pools of candidates
4. Develop the leadership pipeline of junior and middle-management BME individuals in your organsiations
5. Chief executives and boards should lead by example, taking a pro-active and visble role in promoting, monitoring and endorsing the research’s recommendations
Mr Murray in his email said: “We need our leaders to provide energy, challenge and fresh-thinking.
“Achieving this needs much greater diversity at a senior level across the housing sector.”
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Mr Murray suggests associations signing up should send a note setting out their progress on each recommendation to julie.winterton@london.gov.uk by 15 June.
Leadership 2025 is backed by Inside Housing as part of its Inclusive Futures campaign to improve diversity among social housing leadership teams.
Mr Murray’s email follows the first meeting of the Leadership 2025 advisory board last week.
The board, established to help housing associations meet the five pledges, includes: Gina Amoh, chief executive of Inquilab Housing Association, David Montague, chief executive of L&Q, Jamie Ratcliff, assistant director of housing at the Greater London Authority, Elly Hoult chair of CIH Futures, Shaun Scantlebury, director at EY People Advisory Services, along with Inside Housing’s editor Emma Maier. It is supported by consultants from Altair.
The Leadership 2025 leadership development programme opens for applications on 18 May. To find our more visit www.leadership2025.co.uk
Inclusive Futures
Inside Housing’s Inclusive Futures campaign aims to promote and celebrate diversity and inclusion.
We are pledging to publish diversity audits of our own coverage.
We are also committed to proactively promoting positive role models.
We will do this through the pages of Inside Housing. But we will also seek to support other publications and events organisations to be more inclusive.
Our Inclusive Futures Bureau will provide a database of speakers and commentators from all backgrounds, for use by all media organisations.
We are also challenging readers to take five clear steps to promote diversity, informed by the Chartered Institute of Housing’s diversity commission and the Leadership 2025 project.
INSIDE HOUSING’S PLEDGES
We will take proactive steps to promote positive role models from under-represented groups and provide information to support change.
We pledge to:
Publish diversity audits: We will audit the diversity of the commentators we feature. We will formalise this process and publish the results for future audits twice a year.
Promote role models: We will work to highlight leading lights from specific under-represented groups, starting in early 2018 with our new BME Leaders List.
Launch Inclusive Futures Bureau: We will work with the sector to compile a database of speakers, commentators and experts from under-represented groups. The bureau will be available to events organisers, media outlets and publications to support them to better represent the talent in the sector.
Take forward the Women in Housing Awards: Inside Housing has taken on these successful awards and will work to grow and develop them.
Convene Inclusive Futures Summit: Our new high-level event will support organisations to develop and implement strategies to become more diverse and inclusive.
THE INCLUSIVE FUTURES CHALLENGE
Inside Housing calls on organisations to sign up to an inclusive future by taking five steps:
Prioritise diversity and inclusion at the top: commitment and persistence from chief executives, directors and chairs in setting goals and monitoring progress.
Collect data on the diversity of your board, leadership and total workforce and publish annually with your annual report. Consider gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, age, and representation of tenants on the board.
Set aspirational targets for recruitment to the executive team, board and committees from under-represented groups.
Challenge recruiting staff and agencies to ensure that all shortlists include candidates from under-represented groups.
Make diversity and inclusion a core theme in your talent management strategy to ensure you support people from under-represented groups to progress their careers.
