The Housing Corporation is resisting pressure from race equality experts to scrap its new outcomes-based regulation for this issue and revert to a policy of detailed monitoring
At the quango鈥檚 conference in Manchester last week, Commission for Racial Equality chair Gurbux Singh said the sector鈥檚 voluntary approach 鈥渉ad failed鈥� and regulation would be essential.

Tom Murtha, chief executive of Keynote, asked how the corporation would deal with failures on race equality and what sanctions would be imposed. 鈥淭here is a need for more regulation,鈥� he said, in a view he admitted might sound unusual from a chief executive.

But corporation chief executive Norman Perry said: 鈥淲e are trying to move to an outcome system.

鈥淲e would be in a very difficult position if we were seeking to move away from a tick box approach to one based on outcomes, only to introduce new tick boxes in this one area.鈥�

Perry said it would 鈥渘ot be helpful鈥� to specify sanctions for associations which failed to make progress on race equality, and that the regulatory code would cover the issue.

But Singh told the conference: 鈥淲here it is evident that the voluntary approach has failed, I want to see regulation. Housing associations made progress in the 1970s and 1980s but since then the rate of progress has not been terribly impressive. The race and housing inquiry said so. There is a simple logic to it.鈥�

Saif Ahmad, chief executive of North London Muslim Housing Association, called on the corporation to help housing associations to fight religious discrimination.

He said: 鈥淚slamophobia is rising at lightning speed since 11 September. Women wearing the hijab are fearful of going out in public. 鈥淎s a Muslim I have to prove I am innocent or I am considered guilty.鈥�

Corporation board member Yvonne Hutchinson warned about the effects of violence against white people by members of black and minority ethnic communities.

Hutchinson, who is black, said she did so because a white person raising this 鈥渨ould be called a racist鈥�.

She said: 鈥淚 am concerned there is a view that the victims [of racist incidents] are always BME and the perpetrators white. 鈥淚 am from Bradford and there are frequent attacks by BME youth on white youths which are not regarded as racist. Some [whites] then join the BNP because they think no one will listen to them.鈥�

Singh said the CRE, 鈥渉as got to change to be concerned with the totality of our communities, not just minorities鈥�.

Source

Housing Today