Contractors told to employ minorities

Exclusive by Tim Wood



Contractors who fail to employ ethnic minorities to build new homes on London housing estates are being warned that they risk missing out on contracts worth many thousands of pounds.

Stonebridge Housing Action Trust (HAT) has told contractors putting in tenders to build and refurbish 1,400 homes on the Stonebridge Estate over the next seven years that it expects 20 per cent of their workforce to be made up of people living on the estate. Currently, 76 per cent of its residents are black or Asian and are made up from 10 different ethnic groups.

HATs in Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets have also set local labour recruitment targets of 20 and 10 per cent respectively, but those based in Birmingham and Liverpool have not needed to.

Katie Matthews, communications manager at Stonebridge HAT said: "If two contractors are tendering for the same contract and performance indicators show that they have both delivered on time, to budget and to a high standard, but one has shown a commitment to employing people from an ethnic background, then we would select that one.

"We recognise that there is institutionalised racism on construction sites and by setting these targets it sends out a clear message to contractors that we want to do something about it."