By Lead Associate Colin Heyman

2020 has been an extraordinary year in many ways, and certainly a momentous one from the point of view of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

It has been dominated by a virus which was originally described as ‘indiscriminate’, but in fact served to throw into sharp relief existing inequalities in society.

The lockdown which was necessary to prevent its spread similarly highlighted inequality, as it had a disproportionate impact on people in cramped living conditions, key workers often in lower paid jobs; additionally, it highlighted digital exclusion, impacted BAME communities to a greater extent than white communities, and led to rising levels of domestic violence, to name but a few issues.

And then, since George Floyd’s murder in late May and the consequent resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement, racial injustice has been very prominent in all our thoughts – and for those of us who are white, how we can be better allies.

Both these society-wide issues impacted on social housing providers. The former posed many challenges in how to continue to provide services while keeping staff safe, and how to deal with the different needs of different employees working from home.

Social landlords have gone above and beyond to keep providing services to tenants, and in efforts to keep employees and tenants safe whilst doing so.

On the positive side, all the arguments about flexible working, homeworking, and needing to have employees in the office so they can be supervised disappeared in a moment. Hopefully, this is a positive which will be retained, making it much easier for people who need to work
flexibly, such as single parents, disabled people, and so on.

The prominence of racial injustice led, or is leading, many social housing providers to reconsider what the organisation, and the individuals within it, can do to reduce racial inequality. Just a few of the steps I have heard about social landlords taking are:

• Starting conversations – about racism, white privilege, and the challenges People of Colour face. Often at these meetings, People of Colour have felt able for the first time to talk to white colleagues about particular incidents they have experienced, and the daily issues they face
• Radically changing the way board recruitment is done in an aim to diversify
• For the first time having internal networks where People of Colour can meet to discuss how challenges can be overcome and support each other
• Many white allies coming forward to ask what they can do to support colleagues
• A media club where films, books, and TV documentaries are watched and then discussed.

In my experience, social housing providers are at very different places with respect to social justice. For example, I know of London-based housing associations who have already had considerable discussions amongst employees, of whom there is a sizeable minority who are
People of Colour.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are providers, often in mainly white areas who have very few People of Colour as employees and tenants, who are still at the beginning of the journey.

As we move forward to 2021, two hopes in respect of these two major issues are in my thoughts. The first, of course, is the vaccine that hopefully will enable us to live with far fewer restrictions by the middle of next year.

In terms of racism, the fact that so many organisations are thinking of ways forward and discussing these issues, and committing to action, makes me hopeful that more action will be taken in 2021, at an organisational and individual level. Of course, this is a journey, and it is vitally important that work on racial injustice is not short term, and that the momentum is kept up all through next year and longer.

Less hopeful, looking forwards, are the economic effects of the pandemic and Brexit. As usual, it is likely that the poorest in society will be most affected by these – people with the lowest pay and least secure jobs, as well as those on benefits.

At the end of March, the socio-economic duty will be introduced in Wales as a way of ensuring that public sector organisations take poverty into account in their decision making, in addition to other protected characteristics.

In Scotland this has been in law for a couple of years already. I would suggest that it is something that all social housing providers, whatever their situations, should be taking into account in their decision making, and assessing how policies and services impact on the poorest and poorer in society.

The Social Housing White Paper will be another challenge in 2021, and I will be writing about its implications for EDI soon.

Lastly, many people in the network are trying to move their organisations forward in terms of EDI, with a variety of reactions from colleagues and leaders. I hope that these issues will have brought home the importance of EDI to more people within organisations, and can be used as spurs to action in improving EDI practice.

I wish you a good festive break under the difficult conditions we have this year, and look forward to working with you during 2021.