‘It’s part of our DNA’: The small housing association leading the way on EDI

Manningham Housing Association has long blazed a trail when it comes to equality, diversity and inclusion, as its latest ISO accreditation affirms. Liam Turner caught up with CEO Lee Bloomfield and deputy CEO Ulfat Hussain to find out where the Bradford landlord’s commitment to EDI comes from, and why they believe success comes from diversity.

“Manningham Housing Association (MHA) is an exceptional organisation, with everyone totally focused on enhancing the life of customers...and, as the only BME landlord in Bradford, MHA has the leverage and standing within the city to become a lead voice for black and minority ethnic (BME) communities.” 

These were the words of an independent assessor who, in January this year, awarded MHA the global Standard for Diversity and Inclusion in HR Management (ISO 30415) certification, affirming the Bradford-based BME provider as the first housing association in the world to achieve the standard. 

The accreditation follows another ‘first’ in 2019, when the G1/V1 provider became the first housing association in the UK to be awarded the British Standard for Valuing People through Diversity and Inclusion (BS 76005), which was reaffirmed in 2022. 

“It’s massive for us,” says chief executive Lee Bloomfield (pictured, right) as he reflects on MHA’s latest achievement. “For us, equality, diversity, and inclusion run through everything that we do – it’s part of our core values, it’s part of our DNA."

The BME landlord has long been ahead of the pack when it comes to EDI, with various reports over the years showcasing MHA’s EDI work as an example of best practice. Awards have naturally followed – including being named Equality Trailblazer at the North Yorkshire Chamber Business Awards 2022 – serving to further enhance MHA’s standing as an EDI leader within the sector. 

Such recognition might be surprising to some, given its relatively small size; MHA manages fewer than 1,600 homes for around 6,000 people in the Bradford area. However, when it comes to EDI, could its slight stature be an advantage? 

“Being community-based and being connected more to communities, it’s less challenging I think for us to focus on some of the things that are important because we understand the nature of the community,” Lee says.

While Ulfat Hussain, MHA’s deputy chief executive and director of operations, agrees, he wouldn’t want such an admission to be a “cop-out” for larger organisations, which typically have access to more resources. 

“We did this session on equality and diversity and someone from a housing organisation said, ‘Our chief executives really are interested, but they just don’t know how, and they just don’t have the time to do it,’” Ulfat explains.

“If you think about that, if equality and diversity was just as important as development, just as important as net zero, they’d put the resources and effort in to learn, wouldn’t they?” 

Lee adds: “Some of the bigger organisations have more resources. What we’ve tried to do is use the resources that we’ve got more effectively and focus on what’s really important for our communities, for our organisation." 

It goes without saying that all housing providers, no matter their size or location, should share the same commitment to EDI. However, for MHA, its commitment to EDI – and diversity especially – is very much reflective of the communities it serves. 

Close to 40 per cent of Bradford citizens are of non-white heritage. In Manningham City, the ward in which MHA’s head office is located, more than 75 per cent of the population identify as an ethnic minority. 

Ulfat Hussain

If equality and diversity was just as important as development, just as important as net zero, they’d put the resources and effort in to learn, wouldn’t they?

What further enhances MHA’s commitment to delivering for these communities is that BME people are more likely to suffer the effects of inequality and are therefore more likely to live in deprived neighbourhoods. Indeed, Bradford itself is one of the most deprived areas in the UK; in 2020, the city ranked as the twenty-first most deprived local authority district in England (out of a total of 217). 

It’s because of these kinds of statistics that MHA updated its corporate strategy to make tackling inequalities in BME communities one of its four main pledges. 

“On a national level, BME people are more likely to live in damp and mouldy homes,” Lee explains. “They’re over-represented – particularly African and Caribbean men – in the criminal justice system...When you look at it across the board, there are still some huge inequalities in BME communities, and we know that exists.” 

So, what exactly has MHA done to ensure it continues to deliver for its tenants and communities, and in the process securing its place as an EDI leader? 

Show and tell 

A full, exhaustive list of everything MHA has been doing around EDI would fill a small tome. But when Lee and Ulfat are asked to produce examples of MHA’s recent EDI efforts, some initiatives immediately spring to mind. 

One of those is a collection of Baul music – which originated in the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent – that a group of local writers have been tasked with producing as Bradford prepares to host the UK City of Culture 2025. The project itself is the brainchild of MHA community partnership and investment manager Sadar Uddin. 

“It’s rich heritage, and, given the demographics of our tenants and the city, it was a really important piece of work for us to do, to celebrate that heritage music from the Bengali community,” Lee says. 

National Inclusion Week is another event in which MHA makes sure to participate. Last year, in partnership with Housing Diversity Network, MHA put on a series of activities at its head office designed to celebrate differences and foster a more inclusive workplace. 

“We just think that that sends out the right message to communities,” Lee says, adding: “We do traditional dress, we do different lunches on different days, people bring in different food from some of their own heritage countries, as well.” 

MHA has even turned to the latest technology to ensure its communications reach as many people as possible. In December, Lee recorded an end-of-year message in English celebrating the organisation’s 2023 achievements. With the help of AI, MHA was able to reproduce that same video in five other languages. 

“I speak fluent Spanish, fluent Urdu, fluent Arabic – it’s great,” Lee jokes. 

“That shows to people how seriously we do take diversity and inclusion,” Ulfat adds. “It’s about celebrating diversity, isn’t it? If you do care about diversity, you will celebrate it in every way you can.”

Watch MHA chief executive Lee Bloomfield deliver a message in Arabic with the help of AI

There are so many more examples of how MHA is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to EDI, from actively participating in awareness days such as International Women’s Day, to arranging events around disability access and running workshops on topics such as neurodiversity. 

However, its work around EDI also extends to the less obvious. For example, MHA owns some of the largest (four, five, even six-bed) homes in the city, ensuring it can provide housing to the larger families in the communities it serves. Similarly, when MHA builds new housing, it stays away from delivering a set of ‘standard’ units, instead ensuring the homes are suited to the different needs of the community. 

“If you don’t have – in your development team, as an example – people who have diversity of thought in terms of meeting diverse needs when you build homes,” Ulfat explains, “then all you’re going to do is build the standard home that you’re building all the time."

Naturally, Manningham's commitment to EDI is reflected internally as well as externally, and can be seen in how it operates, who it hires – even how it hires. For Lee, it’s about recognising that the traditional way of doing things doesn’t necessarily work for everyone.

“We talk about just getting rid of the application form and looking at things on a different level...because that way you are extending your talent pool, by bringing people in who might not be able to get there through a traditional route, who might add massive value to your organisation,” he explains. 

“It’s not all about competency; it’s also about behaviours, it’s about your beliefs, it’s about your values,” Ulfat adds. “So, it’s about making sure we attract the right people, we recruit the right people, people who believe in our way of working, people who believe in the culture we’ve developed.”

MHA employs a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination, too; some who have “gotten on the wrong side” in the past are no longer working for the organisation.“We don’t just say it: we do it,” Ulfat (pictured above, right) says. 

Leadership and partnerships 

Lee and Ulfat believe that, to successfully embed EDI throughout the organisation, they and other senior figures need to lead from the top. They operate on the belief that, if they themselves don’t practise what they preach, why should they expect anyone else to? 

Aside from displaying these values in his day-to-day work, Lee, for example, chairs the Yorkshire and Humber EDI steering group and sits on the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) EDI chief executives' group to help inform the NHF about the sector’s EDI priorities. He also sits on the executive of BME National, an organisation that tackles inequality in the BME community. 

“It needs to start at the top…it has to start at the board and executive level, and you really have to champion it, because it is so important,” Lee says. “Sometimes I think organisations can become a bit stuck when they’ve not got that leadership focus around EDI.” 

While leadership is an essential part of any organisation, especially when it comes to EDI, it can only get you so far. As Lee and Ulfat testify, partnership-working is just as crucial – whether that’s working with other housing associations or organisations within other sectors.

Lee Bloomfield

Sometimes I think organisations can become a bit stuck when they’ve not got that leadership focus around EDI

MHA works with organisations at all levels, whether it's regionally, such as the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership, or nationally, with the likes of the Housing Diversity Network. Working with local Bradford organisations is also “really key”, according to Ulfat. 

“The key thing is, how do we collaborate with local organisations to promote EDI?” he says, “because you can’t always do it alone.” 

Lee adds: “It’s about...how can we support each other and say, well, we do this, perhaps you could join up with us to do these kinds of things. It’s trying to share experiences and resources.” 

• Five talking points from CIH’s Big Conversation on EDI 

The diversity-success equation 

All social housing providers strive to meet at least their basic obligations when it comes to diversity and inclusion. However, in truth, there are few that display the same level of commitment as MHA. 

In July 2021, the Yorkshire and Humberside Chief Executives Forum, in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, published an EDI report based on data sent in by housing associations in the Yorkshire and Humber region. MHA turned out to be a “real outlier” in how diverse it was both as an organisation and its customer base. 

“Because we are so diverse, that translates into success and into how successful an organisation becomes,” Lee says. “You don’t have to work really hard on these specific things around diversity; they’re embedded in your day-to-day things. 

“And that’s where we’re getting from…it’s about how we embed this throughout the organisation so that it is an ongoing thing.” 

Like many others, the Bradford landlord does what’s legally expected of it in terms of EDI, such as ensuring those with protected characteristics aren’t discriminated against. But it also goes above and beyond – not only because it’s morally and ethically just, but because there are clear benefits of doing so for both MHA (the ‘success’ Lee talks about) and the communities it serves. 

Ulfat explains: “The premise has got to start from, it’s the right thing to do, both for moral and ethical purposes. But if you want to forget about that, purely from a business perspective…then there’s a huge reason to do it as well. 

“So, it’s not just a ‘nice’ thing to do: it’s the right thing to do from all aspects.”

Images courtesy of Manningham Housing Association