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Rising turnover of association chief executives sees 44 depart in three years
Forty-four housing association chief executives have retired in the past three years taking a combined 511 years of experience with them, Inside Housing found.
More than a third of the 100 largest UK housing associations have appointed a new chief executive since 2015, our analysis published today reveals.
The number of new appointments (34) is higher than the 23 recorded between 2011 to 2014 and 21 between 2006 to 2010, due to more chief executives hitting retirement age and company mergers.
The 44 departing executives, which includes well-known sector figures such as Tom Dacey, formerly of Southern, Keith Exford of Clarion and Steve Howlett of Peabody had a lengthy average tenure of 11.6 years.
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“It has been like a generation who grew up in the ‘housing movement’, reaching that stage together,” said Greg Campbell, partner at recruitment firm Campbell Tickell.
Mr Campbell added that policies announced under the David Cameron government may have persuaded some chief executives to retire.
He said: “People were not expecting the rent cut, that meant organisations had to make cuts, and that made a lot of people think, ‘This is not what I came into the sector for.’”
However, the turnover has not particularly increased diversity at the top of organisations, with just two out of 34 chief executives appointed at the largest housing associations since 2015 from BME backgrounds and only 26% of them women.
Terrie Alafat, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said housing workforces overall are “more diverse than average… but at the top of our organisations, on our senior teams and boards it is a different story”.
Tom Murtha, a former chief executive and long-time campaigner for more inclusivity, described the findings as “shocking and shameful”. “This was a huge opportunity and for whatever reason we haven’t been able to open up to talent from the BME community,” he said.
To read the full analysis, including sortable and searchable data tables which allow you to find out who the longest-serving chief executives are, click the button below.
Inside Housing’s Inclusive Futures campaign aims to promote inclusivity among the sector’s leadership teams.
The Inclusive Futures Summit
Inside Housing is launching the Inclusive Futures Summit
Our high-level summit will bring together respected people leaders and exemplars from the across sector and wider business to debate, discuss and learn how to embed diversity and inclusion in your organisations and harness the myriad benefits that this creates and to ensure that your workplace is reflective of the diverse communities you serve.
Themes being discussed include why being an inclusive organisation can help you be more successful, how to make inclusion visible in your organisation and the best approaches to encourage diversity at board level.
Discussions will also focus on how to future-proof your recruitment processes, promote inclusion through talent management, build working environments safe from prejudice and tackle unconscious bias.
The summit will take place on October 11 at the Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester.
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.
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.
THE CASE FOR CHANGE
34%
of housing association chief executives are female
1%
of housing association executives have a disability
1.6%
of housing association board members are LGBT
Women make up 46% of the UK workforce, but Inside Housing research found that they are under-represented on housing association boards (36%), executive teams (39%) and among chief executives (34%).
Almost a fifth of working-age adults have a disability (18%), yet associations reported only 1% of executives and 4.5% of board members with a disability. Many were unable to provide details.
Nationwide, 14% of the working-age population come from a BME background, climbing to 40% in London and Birmingham. Yet our research found that 6.8% of board members identified as BME, compared with 4.5% of executives.
Statistics on representation of LGBT people in the workforce are in short supply, but official statistics suggest that 2% of the total UK population identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, rising to 4.1% for 16 to 24-year-olds. Our survey found that 1.6% of board members and 10 executives were LGBT – but most organisations were unable to provide figures.
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 Inside Housing Diversity Audit: how diverse has our coverage been?
The media plays a key role in championing diverse role models, so we designed a project to measure Inside Housing’s track record.
