Feeling excluded?

For a sector that prides itself on being socially aware and inclusive, housing is doing a pretty lousy job of bringing diversity to its own workforce.

At first glance, things might look fairly impressive. Housing Corporation figures from 2003 show that 70% of people working for associations are women, and 13% of staff are from black and minority-ethnic backgrounds – compared with 76% and 6.9% in councils and 51% and 7.9% of the whole UK population.

But in an exclusive survey carried out over the past two months, Housing Today has found the story to be very different when you look at the people in the top jobs. Our census of the people holding power in England’s 100 largest councils’ housing departments and 100 largest housing associations has found that just eight associations are headed by a black or minority-ethnic person. Even worse, just one council in the top 100 has a head of housing who is not white.

Our census was prompted by the corporation’s Leadership 2010 initiative.

It set a target that 50% of registered social landlord chief executives should be female by the end of the decade. But since Leadership 2010 was launched in 2003, the proportion of women in top jobs has failed to budge: it’s still a dismal 13%; and the picture is just as bad in council housing departments, of which just 12% are run by women.

Over the next 12 pages, we look at how the women or BME leaders compare with their male and white counterparts, ask experts why the situation is so bad, and look at what is being done to change things.

We also look forward in time to when today’s white, male chief executives and housing directors are due to retire – hopefully opening up space for a younger, more diverse generation to take their places and paving the way for a leadership that is altogether more inspiring for those currently working on the front line.