Social housing sector: engaging with tenants from ethnic minority backgrounds

4. Key Messages

This study finds that tenants from minority ethnic backgrounds remain underrepresented in tenant participation across Scotland’s social housing sector. While many landlords express broad commitments to equality and diversity, these rarely translate into targeted actions that address the specific barriers faced by minority ethnic tenants.

The evidence gathered highlights persistent challenges. Language barriers, limited access to translation, and digital exclusion continue to restrict participation. A lack of trust, experiences of discrimination, and cultural insensitivity were also reported. Many landlords do not collect or publish robust ethnicity data, leaving them unable to monitor or improve representation. The difficulty of recruiting tenants from ethnic minority backgrounds for this research underlines the extent of their exclusion from existing participation structures.

Despite these challenges, the study also uncovered examples of good practice. Some landlords have worked with community groups, resettlement officers, and faith leaders to build relationships and trust. Others have introduced translated surveys, offered childcare and transport to enable attendance at meetings, or adapted events to be more culturally inclusive. These examples show what is possible when inclusion is made a priority.

A central finding of this study is the lack of robust data. Many landlords either do not collect, or do not publish, ethnicity data about their tenants, staff, or boards. This absence of information makes it challenging to track representation or measure progress. The difficulty of recruiting tenants from minority ethnic backgrounds to participate in this study is itself evidence of the wider challenges in engaging those communities.

The overall message is clear: participation is most meaningful when it reflects the full diversity of Scotland’s tenants. Housing organisations should be taking decisive action to ensure tenants from ethnic minority backgrounds are encouraged and supported to have a say in the decisions that shape their homes & communities.