The Housing Corporation is to target 429 women in senior positions for extra training and support in its drive to quadruple the number of female chief executives.
But the author of a report on the campaign denied she was calling for positive discrimination.

Liz Potter, former director of policy at the National Housing Federation, said: "It's about redressing the balance. Evidence shows women don't get the same access to training and career opportunities that men do."

Last Thursday, the corporation published a seven-point action plan aimed at getting more women into top jobs.

The Leadership 2010 campaign aims for women to make up half the chief executives of the top 200 registered social landlords by 2010.

Top of the list is to use an NHF database of 429 women in senior positions to start to set up a network of the sector's future leaders. The 429 will receive information and subsidised training.

The corporation is looking to use an Innovation and Good Practice grant to employ a full-time Leadership 2010 Champion.

The report also found that more work needed to be done to increase the number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds in senior positions in the sector, but said it did not have enough information to assess the scale of the problem.

Source

Housing Today