Minority ethnic employment in the Scottish social housing sector: evidence scoping review

5. Evidence from the wider housing sector

The evidence search strategy as described in section 2 was intended to allow for contextual evidence from other housing sectors. In terms of the Private Rented Sector, a 2009 survey of registered Scottish private landlords undertaken by Scottish Government found that 5% of dwellings were owned by members of the non-white ethnic groups at that time (whereas census data from the closest comparable time period in 2011 showed minority ethnic groups comprised 8.2% of the population) (National Records of Scotland 2011). Only in Glasgow was this percentage higher, where 14% were owned by members of non-white ethnic groups^[5]. The formal literature search did not return experiential data about other forms of employment in this sector.

One industry which did emerge within the literature as having a wider evidence base on the topic was construction. In 2022, the Construction sector provided 5.6% of Scotland’s total Gross Value Added (GVA)^[6] and was one of the country’s major employers, with a workforce of 148,000 people^[7]. Within the UK as a whole, evidence suggests that the industry lacks diversity compared to others (CITB 2022a). Recent statistics show that employment within the construction industry at both a Scotland and UK level are predominantly dominated by white, male workers (Fair Work Convention 2022; ONS 2021; Scottish Government 2022c). A 2004 report by CEMS concluded that minority ethnic workers were especially underrepresented at the middle and upper management levels in the UK construction industry (CEMS 2004) and a 2005 study by Byrne et al found minority ethnic employment at that time to be concentrated at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy where the least secure, worse-paid jobs are (Byrne et al 2005). A recent report by the Fair Work Convention (2022) indicated that diversity and inclusion issues within the Scottish construction industry had remained largely unchanged for the last decade. The low levels of minority ethnic employment in the UK construction industry was found to be a product of two intertwined elements: entry rates and retention rates (Ahmed 2008).

A mixed-methods study conducted in the North-West of the UK (Ahmed et al 2008), involving a questionnaire survey with a sample comprising 229 students in a ‘construction-related programme’ and 105 construction employees; a workshop and seminar with a focus group comprising postgraduate students in construction programmes at the University of Salford; and interviews with 11 company directors and HR managers and seven academics in the field of construction in higher education, found that amongst the barriers to entry and retention faced by minority ethnic individuals, discrimination and prejudice played a role from the university level. The study found evidence of discriminatory cultures including ‘racial banter’, existence of cross-generational families within the industry which created a strong ‘in group’, opaque salary structures and lack of mentoring.

A 2009 review of UK literature on discrimination in the construction industry (Caplan et al 2009) identified a lack of implementation and monitoring of equal opportunities policies and highlighted that high levels of representation in further and higher education for construction were not translating to employment rates. It also highlighted social factors which acted as barriers to the representation of ethnic minorities in construction, including: low levels of awareness within minority ethnic communities of the range of opportunities in construction; differences in the educational and training experiences of minority ethnic people compared with white people; the lack of informal information networks within minority ethnic communities about work in the construction industry; prevalence of word-of-mouth recruitment and persistent perceptions of racism in the industry.

More recently, the Fair Work Convention report notes that some of these ingrained cultural barriers to minority ethnic recruitment remain, which causes the industry to miss out on potential talent at a time when it is much needed. In recognition of the need to take responsibility for improving the realities of the construction sector, CITB highlights the need for the industry to encourage ambassadors to inspire those from under-represented groups and notes ‘insiders from ethnic minority groups are seen to have particularly strong positive voices and influence’ (2022b). Recent initiatives have been undertaken in the construction industry to address inequalities including the STEP into Construction Scheme which ran until 2021, the continuing Building Equality in Construction project, and Building Futures Scotland CIC, a small Scottish run initiative aimed at minority ethnic women which received grant funding in 2016.

These evidence sources address internal inequalities within construction-related organisations, however the tendering process was identified as an additional mechanism through which practices could be introduced in the housing industry. This is particularly relevant to social housing, as a 2007 Welsh study with RSLs (Duncan and Mortimer 2007) found that few respondents addressed racial equality as part of the construction procurement process, and tended to contract from an existing list of companies. Other studies found that small and medium minority ethnic enterprises encountered exclusion in tendering and procurement processes (Caplan et al 2009).

The independent advisor on race equality in Scotland has recommended that the Scottish Government should require procurers for public investment contracts to set binding targets to increase their proportion of minority ethnic staff (Scottish Government 2017b). Equality legislation informs the approach to public procurement in Scotland: the Sustainable Procurement Duty requires public bodies to consider and act on equality through their procurement activity. In line with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, procurement policy and guidance encourages consideration of equality related requirements on a case by case basis to ensure relevance and proportionality, enabling public bodies to do what will have the greatest impact in a particular contract and to ensure smaller and third sector enterprises are not discouraged from bidding for contracts by a more prescriptive approach. A more prescriptive approach, rather than encouraging procurers to do what will have the greatest impact in a particular contract, risks placing a disproportionate burden on suppliers that may discourage smaller and third sector enterprises from bidding.

Furthermore, Fair Work First criteria, and fair work practices as set out in Scottish Government procurement guidance should be applied to public sector contracts and frameworks, as well as publicly funded supply chains, where relevant and proportionate to do so. This alongside the other aspects of the sustainable procurement duty and the long-standing Community Benefits in Procurement policy for large value contracts embeds a focus on employability, training and tackling inequalities by focusing on under-represented groups.

5.1 Recent Initiatives

In 2022 the Scottish Construction Leadership Forum (CLF), the main forum for Scottish Government/industry interaction, launched a National Construction Equity and Inclusion Plan (NCEIP) for the construction industry in Scotland to encourage the development of a more diverse and all-encompassing workforce. This was followed by the launch of the Construction Accord, a shared strategic vision for the industry and the public sector, including key principles such as fair work, net zero, diversity and inclusion, and in January 2024 a Transformation Action Plan was enacted to implement the vision of the Accord through a series of working groups (Construction Accord Transformation Action Plan 2024).