You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Homes England pledges to make housing industry more inclusive
Homes England has pledged to make the housing industry more inclusive as it published its first annual report into equality and diversity.
The government’s housing agency said it will work with partners to better cater for “the diverse communities it serves” over the next four years.
It has set five objectives in the report to achieve that aim, including improving its own recruitment and staff experiences, focusing on delivering homes that ameliorate housing inequalities and demanding more from suppliers on diversity.
Homes England partners will be expected to make commitments on diversity and inclusion as part of its procurement processes.
These will be embedded within its new Delivery Partner Panel of developers and contractors, set to go live next year, alongside other non-financial requirements such as design quality.
READ MORE
Olivia Scanlon, board sponsor for equality, diversity and inclusion at Homes England, said: “At Homes England, we want to make homes happen for everyone, and we can only truly achieve that by creating a workplace – and an industry – where everyone is able to be themselves.
“Work is already ongoing to deliver positive change to our procurement process and determine how we can improve diversity and inclusion through our supply chain.
“This sends a clear message to our partners about our expectations of them and will ensure the homes we deliver truly fit the requirements of the people who live in them.”
The agency will also improve data gathering to help it address specific housing needs within communities.
It intends to review how well it is achieving creating inclusive and equal access to its services.
On 31 March 2020, 11.4% of Homes England’s 1,035 employees declared an ethnicity other than white.
Around one in 20 declared a disability and 0.2% declared their gender as not the same as sex assigned at birth, while 2.3% stated a sexuality other than heterosexual.
Homes England has also published its Gender Pay Gap report for 2020 today, indicating that the median hourly rate for its female employees is 15.3% less than among men.
That is a slight decrease on the 15.5% gap reported in 2019.
Nick Walkley, chief executive of Homes England, said: “The report shows lots of improvement and achievement thanks to hard work and energy of colleagues… but we can do far better and executive are committed to doing so.”
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.
