We’re still on a bit of a high after our HouseProud Breakfast Briefing - 100 Days of a New Government - what is the impact for Housing and Diversity? It also helped that we were on after budget day, so that our speakers could reflect with their immediate thoughts. Here are the takeaways from each of our speakers. The whole event was recorded for a podcast by our generous hosts Trowers and watch this space for when that will be made available. Clare Norton of #PeterBedford gave us an insightful speech about their journey of 27 years attending Pride and incorporating LGBTQ+ awareness with their residents and colleagues. Clare shared how this awareness-building work has been carried out as part of their Tenant Participation Ladder. Sometimes some of the simplest ideas can be the most effective, and we were left with the challenge to make sure that colleagues’ pronouns were on their identity badges! Bethan Buck, from the National Federation of Housing outlined the small wins we have seen in the budget. She also noted that for every new social home built in the past 12 months, 6 families present as homeless. Bethan called on delegates to support the NHF in their campaign to achieve a 10-year rent settlement with the government, in next year’s Government Housing Strategy. She also encouraged us to ensure that ED&I is explicitly referenced in the strategy, or it may be that the sector ends up being ‘regulated’ on delivering to this agenda. Chris Struthers, Planning Expert who works cross-sector, gave his presentation on the National Planning Policy Framework, which the new government introduced within their first month of the election. Chris drafted the G15 response to this earlier in the year. Despite the target of building 1.5 million new homes by the end of the parliament. Chris remained sceptical as only three times since the way has the required 370,000 homes been completed in a year. What was especially unique about Chris’s presentation was that he talked about how planners can enhance inclusivity through planning with some examples of this across London, with reference to LGBTQ+ spaces that have been saved. Barry Boffy shared thoughts on the government’s approach to diversity and how housing providers can improve. Barry said that in no uncertain terms that, in relation to Bethan's point, the sector does not want to be regulated for ED&I, as the spectre of box-ticking looms large. He also warned that the HouseProud Pledge should not fall prey to this approach, and remain live and fresh. One of Barry’s strongest takeaways was to ensure that our ED&I message appeals to everybody – especially the majority of the organisation who may not see ED&I work as ‘their job’ as Inclusivity never excludes. This might mean making sure everybody feels that they can be and are actually heard. Barry told us to ensure that we should check that all we do feeds into the ultimate goal of achieving cohesion, dignity and respect.
-
-
-
-
-
+3