EDITOR’S COMMENT This week we publish the results of our third survey looking at attitudes and actions around LGBTQ+ people in real estate. The results show a bit of a slip backwards on some of the progress that had been revealed in previous surveys, with a lesser percentage of people feeling safe in their workplaces or that enough was being done to promote LGBTQ+ inclusivity.
The pandemic can take the blame for some of that. Focus has been elsewhere. But Covid cannot take the blame for the very many stories that are shared through the survey each year talking about people’s fears of being out in the industry, of talking freely about who they are and how they feel.
How can it be that in 2021, when we have all just been through one of the most torturous experiences in most of our lifetimes, being kept away from our loved ones, locked down and removed from community, we still can’t be understanding and accepting of each other?
How can we still live (and work) in an environment where you can be overlooked for a role because you’re gay, where you can be told to hide who you are in front of a client because it might cost you business, where you are afraid to share who you are because you know you “could get into trouble”?
None of this is okay. And it has to stop. Now.
If it doesn’t, the debilitating effect of this will be to your business, not to the people who are made to feel afraid.
Almost two-thirds of respondents to our survey said that they actively looked for and prioritised applying for work at companies that were visibly LGBTQ+ inclusive. And in the never-ending war for talent, missing out on a significant proportion of the potential workforce because you are not enabling people to feel safe enough to be authentic is just not an option.
Add to that the gender-fluidity of the next generation and this industry could be in dire straits if it doesn’t pin its rainbow colours to the mast and show that real estate can be a place for all people – whoever you are, whoever you love, whatever pronoun you use.
But all is not lost. Despite the big moves forward that real estate needs to take on the journey to inclusivity, an encouraging 86% and 72% of respondents would respectively recommend their business and the wider industry to members of the LGBTQ+ community as a place to work.
It’s not a perfect score, but it’s not bad either. It’s a crocus, perhaps, poking through the snow.
This week I was alerted to a “seminar” teaching tenants how to escape lease commitments and exactly how far they could use the CVA process to rewrite leases. It is a legitimate training course, and one that can earn anyone taking part CPD points, but it just doesn’t feel right does it?
Imagine if that was turned around and the seminar was for landlords to rewrite their leases so they could squeeze tenants for more when times were good, or just boot them out of premises when they wanted to, or when a better offer came along. There would be outrage.
I have used this forum before to stand by landlords, particularly during the pandemic, and the clear and prevalent misuse of CVAs. Today I use it again, and call on the chair of the BPF’s new retail board, Allan Lockhart, to play more than just a leading part in re-establishing relationships scarred by the CVA regime, but to make government listen and really understand the plight of the landlord.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
