Housing Corporation chair Baroness Brenda Dean has slammed the sector's equal opportunities record in recruitment for senior jobs.
Speaking at the National Housing Federation's chief executive's conference on Monday, Dean said: "The NHF published a report on diversity and leadership in the sector entitled Getting More Women to the Top 10 years ago.

"It is a sad commentary that little has changed in the past decade."

She warned that if the sector failed to act, it would miss out on the next generation of best leaders as these would increasingly be women and people from ethnic minorities.

Speaking exclusively to Housing Today, Dean said: "I don't want what I said to be seen as 'just Brenda having a go again'.

"This is a serious point and my concern is the sector's future management."

Dean added that she has been leading a corporation working group for the last six months that has examined the issue of a lack of diversity in top jobs.

n At the same event, housing minister Lord Rooker called on housing associations to tell the government about what was stopping them delivering.

He said they should give the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister "chapter and verse" on blockages such as problems with planning departments.

Source

Housing Today