… it’s OK, we don’t want to

The story in last week’s issue may have given the impression that the forthcoming CIH report on the future of BME associations will call for a new organisation to replace the Federation of Black Housing Organisations.

The report starts from the proposition that most BME associations are doing well and are linked into local and regional networks. Their history in fighting discrimination and inequality and in promoting black leadership also still binds them together.

We highlight in the report how the Housing Corporation can help promote capacity within BME associations, and believe that this can best be achieved if BME associations collectively promote their role and their achievements more effectively.

Some of those interviewed in the study did call for a new body to emerge, but it is the development of a vision and successfully promoting the role of BME associations that is the important issue, and we are discussing this positively with the FBHO.

We do recognise that promoting 60-plus smaller, diverse organisations is difficult and it is not for the CIH to tell the BME sector how to do that. We therefore say that we “strongly believe that BME associations have to debate how best to take forward their collective future and how they ‘brand’ themselves”.