BTR membership body the UK Apartment Association (UKAA) has created a new equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) committee.
The group will be led by Stephanie Smith, head of living sector operations at Hubbl and chair at the UKAA EDI committee (pictured above), and Kevin Redman, executive consultant at Oyster Partnerhip.
The leaders will work with UKAA senior leaders to select the EDI committee members, with the first group meeting to plan its scope and priorities scheduled for early October 2023.
The association has already taken a leading role in raising awareness of EDI matters in the BTR sector, making it a core objective of the 2023 manifesto and through the initial UKAA/Swift Bunny diversity, equity, and inclusion benchmarking snapshot in spring 2022, and in an expanded follow up survey published in January 2023.
The survey examined 15 areas of EDI within the BTR sector, looking at both differences and correlations in perception between employees and executives.
Expressions of interest from middle managers from back-office, property, HR, and leasing teams, among others are needed by 18th September 2023, with a focus on those who are passionate about providing views on EDI, ideas, and new solutions.
Brendan Geraghty, CEO at UKAA, commented: “A strong commitment to EDI can bring direct operational and fiscal benefits, as well as simply being the right way forward.
“Our surveys last year shone a spotlight on EDI in BTR.
“Now it’s time to take that work to the next level by enhancing understanding of EDI within the sector and implementing a range of improvement ideas.”
The committee will be formally introduced at the UKAA Annual BTR Conference and Awards event on 2nd November 2023.
