The British Property Federation (BPF) today announces that it has created a Diversity & Inclusivity Advisory Board, which will drive forward the BPF’s strategy to foster a more diverse and inclusive property sector.

The Board will be led by BPF Junior Vice President David Partridge, Managing Partner of Argent, and comprises experts from both within and outside the sector. The Board members are Piali Das Gupta, Head of Policy at Solace (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers); Jill Pett, Partner and Executive Coach with The Alexander Partnership; Matthew Powell, CEO of Breaking Barriers; and Kemi Oguntoye, Property Consultant at SAY Property Consulting.

This marks the next step of the BPF’s campaign to unite the industry and use its collective weight to influence change, creating a culture of equality and inclusion that attracts and retains the broadest range of talent from all parts of society.

The Board’s inauguration coincides with the launch of the BPF Diversity & Inclusivity Champions Network, which is currently recruiting property and cross-sectoral professionals to come together in one forum to share and learn best practice in diversity and inclusivity.

Members of the Network will ensure better dissemination of the property sector’s efforts in diversity and inclusivity across their respective businesses. The Network will also allow the sector to draw upon a wider pool of experience from different business sectors, to further understanding of progress made by other business sectors and drive momentum behind the pace of cultural change in property.

Back in May 2017, the BPF launched its statement of principles to support a more diverse and inclusive property sector, which committed the BPF to lending its voice to support the following partners to promote diversity and inclusivity: Freehold, Real Estate Balance, Pathways to Property and Purple – leaders in LGBT+, gender, socio-economic and disability diversity respectively. And, the BPF’s industry partner on diversity and inclusivity is Revo.

This was followed in December 2017 with the creation of BPF Futures, a junior professional network to develop the property sector’s future leaders, providing opportunities to shape the sector’s voice to a more diverse talent pool.

Today, the BPF is adding to this list of partners and establishing a partnership with the John O’Halloran initiative on mental health in the property industry, which in turn is supported by Lionheart.

David Partridge, Junior Vice President, British Property Federation & Managing Partner, Argent comments:

“While the property sector recognises that it has only just set out on what is no doubt a long journey to becoming truly diverse and inclusive, the issue is firmly at the top of our agenda. As a business sector, we must be able to respond to everything that our customers, our investors and society quite rightly demand of us. Our sector is vital to the UK’s success – but to maintain our role as an enabler of economic and social prosperity, improving how we recruit and retain talent is necessary. The BPF’s Diversity & Inclusivity Advisory Board will hold our strategy to account and seek to deliver progressive change throughout the property sector.”

Melanie Leech, Chief Executive, British Property Federation comments:

“The BPF continues to champion a more diverse and inclusive real estate industry – one which people from across all parts of society want to join and feel proud to be part of. We are committed to a long-term programme working with our partners to help achieve this goal and to support our members in sharing best practice across our sector. Becoming a business sector that better reflects the diversity of the communities we serve is not only the right thing to do, it is business critical.”