Metropolitan Housing Partnership moves into top 30 of UK’s most gay-friendly employers.

Staff at Metropolitan Housing Partnership (MHP) have been celebrating the organisation’s rise to becoming the 27th gay-friendly organisation within the Stonewall 2010 Workplace Equality Index. MHP has moved up 16 places from last year, when the organisation was ranked at 43rd. This is the fifth consecutive year that MHP have featured in the list and, despite greatly increased competition for inclusion and more stringent assessment, MHP is still the only G15 housing association to be ranked.

Stonewall’s assessors particularly praised MHP’s high-profile stance in promoting understanding of the issues faced by LGBT people accessing affordable housing, and the experiences of LGBT asylum seekers in the UK. The Workplace Equality Index assessment process looks at employers’ policies and procedures, leadership on diversity issues, support for lesbian, gay, and bisexual staff, and support for the wider gay community.

Commenting on the result, Bill Payne, MHP’s Chief Executive said:
‘This is a very good result, and a practical demonstration of our commitment to diversity across the board.  Showing our support for lesbian, gay, and bi staff means that they can be themselves in the workplace, and that pays back in loyalty and productivity, as well as enabling us to attract the best talent when recruiting.  The competition has been fiercer than ever this year, so I’m very pleased with the improvement we’ve made.  But we are not complacent, and know we can do more, particularly in terms of making sure that our LGBT residents and service users also experience the benefit of our approach.’

All press enquiries should be directed to:

Jason Grant
Communications Officer
Jason.grant@mhp-online.co.uk
07786 274535