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Women in Housing Awards 2019 – the winners revealed
The achievements of outstanding women working in the sector were recognised at the seventh annual Women in Housing Awards tonight.
The event, organised by Inside Housing, saw female individuals or team members recognised in 22 different categories, while a further 12 received commendations.
Among the winners were four Women of the Year.
These were: Anne Hinchey, chief executive of Wales and West Housing, who won in the leadership category; Sue Shirt, executive director for customer experience at Stonewater, who won in the tenant/customer focus category; Emma Webb, support team leader of Ferry Project, who won in the homelessness/care and support category; and Caroline McGrogan, general manager at Fortem, who won in the assets/development/regeneration category.
Loreburn Housing Association, based in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, won Employer of the Year.
The organisation, which came out of regulatory intervention in 2015, has a female chief executive, director of housing and director of property and development.
The judges said: “Despite this organisation going through a tough period, they not only came through it but has managed to create a genuinely new and dynamic organisation and has used the experience as an opportunity for change.”
The awards were presented by comedian Tania Edwards at a ceremony tonight at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester.
See below for the full list of winners.
We will be publishing more information, along with photos of all the winners, online and in a special print supplement in the coming weeks.
Women In Housing Awards 2019 – the winners
| Category | Team/Project/Individual Name | Organisation | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Board/Committee Member of the Year | Lesley Burrows | The Calico Group | |
| Consultant of the Year | Margaret Wilkinson | Accord Housing Association | |
| Development and maintenance | Property Plus | ||
| Marketing or Communications Initiative | BACKUP | ||
| Inclusion Champion | Tanzeem Ahmed | Poplar Harca | United Living |
| Improving the lives of women or communities (large organisation) | Stonewater Asian Women's Refuge | Stonewater | Jigsaw Housing |
| Improving the lives of women or communities (small organisation) | Hyacinth Foster | Homes for Haringey | |
| Finance Professional of the Year | Helen Rourke | Manningham Housing Association | |
| Professional of the Year (small organisation) | Hannah Harvey | Saffron Housing Trust | |
| Professional of the Year (medium organisation) | Charlotte Herring | One Housing | |
| Professional of the Year (large organisation) | Laura Tutton | Orbit | |
| Team of the Year: corporate/strategic | Digital inclusion team | Clarion Housing Group | |
| Team of the Year: frontline (small organisation) | The Naomi Project | Oasis Community Housing | |
| Team of the Year: frontline (large organisation) | Community solutions homelessness prevention team | London Borough of Barking & Dagenham | Anthony Collins Solicitors LLP |
| Team of the Year: marketing/sales | Communications team | Galliford Try Partnerships | |
| Employer of the Year | Loreburn Housing Association | ||
| Young Achiever (small organisation) | Marium Begum | Poplar Harca | |
| Young Achiever (large organisation) | Kimberley Wheatland | Sovereign Housing Association | Fortem |
| Woman of the Year: assets/development/regeneration | Caroline McGrogan | Fortem | |
| Woman of the year: homelessness/care and support | Emma Webb, Ferry Project | Luminus Group, part of Places for People | |
| Woman of the Year: leadership | Anne Hinchey | Wales & West Housing | Wish/Civitas |
| Woman of the Year: tenant/customer focus | Sue Shirt | Stonewater | Novus Property Solutions |
Women in Housing Awards 2019 – highly commended
| Category | Team/Project/Individual Name | Organisation | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development and maintenance | Women in Construction project | Celtic Horizons | |
| Professional of the Year (small organisation) | Jitinder Takhar | Local Space | |
| Professional of the Year (large organisation) | Natalie Palmer | Metropolitan Thames Valley | |
| Woman of the Year: assets/development/regeneration | Sarah Maylor | Curo | |
| Woman of the Year: homelessness/care and support | Sarah Hernandez | Derventio Housing Trust | |
| Woman of the Year: leadership | Elena Whitham | East Ayrshire Council | |
| Woman of the Year: tenant/customer focus | Diana Charman | PA Housing | Novus Property Solutions |
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 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.
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.
