Breaking down barriers to entry and making the UK’s SME housebuilding sector a more inclusive environment for women to thrive and reach senior leadership positions; with a long-term view of increasing the number of SME housebuilders and increasing housing delivery.

Later this year we also want to expand the initiative to look at diversity more broadly and how this can be leveraged to provide a strategic advantage within the workforce. We would like to examine how we can increase diversity within the sector in terms of ethnicity, neurodiversity and disability and in doing so highlighting the resultant benefits, such as greater diversity of thought. We’re currently engaged with a brilliant deaf contracting company.  

Just 2% of SME housebuilding businesses in the UK are owned and run by women. Of the 2.1 million people working in construction, women represent just 14%.

Formation of I Am a Housebuilder

In February 2024 the Secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for SME Housebuilders (Edwin de Silva), gathered seven female founders of SME housebuilders for a lunch in Parliament ahead of International Women’s Day, to highlight the need for more women in senior leadership roles in housebuilding. The seven were dubbed the ‘Magnificent Seven/M7’ and following the lunch the I am a Housebuilder initiative was born, with the M7 as the Steering Group.

 

The ambition of I am a Housebuilder is to make the sector more inclusive for women, with the ultimate objective of improving diversity, but also seeking to tackle key three issues within the sector and provide practical solutions:

  • Addressing the acute skills shortage by employing a ‘see it to be it’ approach

  • Increasing the supply of housing in line with new Government targets

  • Raising the standard of quality and design of new homes

The Mentoring Programme:

In September 2024, the I am a Housebuilder initiative announced a mentoring programme with the M7 offering their time pro-bono, to mentor.

The mentees from the inaugural cohort range from 23 to 58 years old, with applicants across the UK and from a broad spectrum of disciplines across the property/housebuilding sector, including: architects, planners, site assistants, letting agents, designers and marketers. Several have already established their own housebuilding/construction businesses and hope to learn from the mentors how to further develop their skills to enable them to scale their businesses.

Through the mentorship programme, which spans 12 months, mentors and mentees meet on a quarterly basis with the mentors providing counsel on an ad hoc basis. The programme aims to equip mentees with the skills, expertise and confidence that they need to excel in their careers.