Equity, diversity, and inclusion

We’re committed to delivering fair and just services that are accessible to people of any background, in line with the Equality Act 2010.

But we’re also dedicated to going beyond this and tackling inequality in its widest sense and challenging discrimination based on a variety of social and cultural characteristics. This includes socio-economic background or any other matter that causes a person to be treated with injustice.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

Equity	Equity means ensuring that everybody has an equal chance to achieve the same outcome.
Diversity	Diversity is about celebrating and valuing our differences as well as our similarities. Diversity should be part of everything we do.
Inclusion	Inclusion means that all people, regardless of their abilities or additional needs, have the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

We’ll deliver this through our policy framework, programme of equality impact assessments, training, consultation, communication and partnership working. We have a set of metrics to  track progress against our equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) commitments, which we regularly review.

Our commitments

We’re committed to delivering fair and equitable services that are accessible to people of any background. We aim to be as inclusive an employer as possible and treat everyone with fairness and respect.

We recognise that the people who provide and use our services come from diverse backgrounds, and each have different experiences and needs. We’ll eliminate barriers we come across which may inhibit service delivery to particular groups. We’ll also make sure that our employment policies and practices don’t exclude or disadvantage potential employees from diverse backgrounds.

We value the differences in all our employees and customers and will treat them with fairness and respect. You can read more about diversity in our workplace on our careers page.

We accept our legal and regulatory responsibilities. We also recognise the need for a comprehensive Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy to safeguard the rights of individuals and groups, and to help us achieve our core values. We don’t tolerate discrimination, violence or harassment aimed at or originating from employees, our customer base or members of the local community.

We understand that some groups are at a significant disadvantage from the outset compared to others. Achieving equity means doing our best to help people reach the same outcomes. 

We’re continuing to build a more diverse and inclusive organisation, for example by recruiting Board members that are more representative of our community.

We’re committed to consulting the people impacted by our services. We have stakeholder groups and a Customer Review Panel that are diverse and review our services to make sure they’re relevant and accessible to all. We’ll make a particular effort to establish effective consultation with groups who we know to be at a social disadvantage. 

In 2022, we developed our new Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Policy, supported by an action plan, which we put together in partnership with Housing Diversity Network. We listened to employees and customers to develop the action plan, making sure it reflected their priorities. Our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Report outlines the progress we’ve made on the five themes of the action plan. It covers the period January 2022 up to December 2023. 

Our partnerships