G15 misses target for diversity on members’ boards

Almost 15% of G15 members’ boards are now ethnically diverse, according to the organisation’s latest diversity report.

The report monitors progress on targets set out by the group of large London housing association’s 2020 Ethnic Diversity Pledge, revealing that the providers were only half way toward their target of 30% representation by 2030.

What’s more, the figure was actually a fall on the proportion of representation in 2022, when it stood at 23%, and is only marginally higher than the 13% recorded at the time of the pledge.

“While this is in part due to the impact of mergers and the inclusion of new members who are not predominantly London-based, we must be honest in acknowledging that progress has not been as fast or as sustained as we had hoped,” the report noted.

Boards at the Hyde Group and Peabody are now 25% ethnically diverse, while at L&Q they are 22.2%.

The report also noted that 16.2% of the workforce across the G15 identified as Black, African, Caribbean or Black British, which it said was four times the UK workforce average and 3% above the proportion within London’s population.

Meanwhile, representation of minority ethnic people on the G15’s committees has increased to 21% since the pledge was signed, and 117 staff have completed the Accelerate programme since its launch in 2022. 

Accelerate is a leadership and development programme for ethnic minority managers and was introduced after the 2020 pledge.

Fiona Fletcher-Smith, chief executive of L&Q and former G15 Chair said that while they had “made progress”, the report showed that “more still needs to be done”.

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She said the G15 organisations still “remain committed to achieving” the board representation target “whilst working to ensure that all colleagues can reach their full potential”. 

“All of us have a role to play in making our organisations truly representative of the communities we serve,” she said.

Fletcher-Smith highlighted some of the case studies in the report, celebrating the “ incredible and much needed work G15 members are doing to boost diversity, equality and inclusion”.

She pointed to the Black on Board Programme that Peabody is involved with, Guinness Partnership’s work to recruit more older workers and Southern’s programme to embed inclusive recruitment practices as key examples of work done to meet the G15’s diversity goals.