Lara Oyedele is not afraid to ruffle a few feathers. As she nears the end of her CIH presidency, the housing champion and diversity campaigner talks to Housing View about what she has achieved, her plans for the future, and challenging the status quo
by Ben Wakeling
Lara Oyedele is halfway through a sentence when her doorbell rings: it’s the postman, delivering yet another parcel for a neighbour who isn’t in. “I’m like a sub-department of the Post Office,” she explains, dashing back in front of the camera. “I’ve been working from home for years, so all the neighbours get their parcels delivered here.”
‘Home’ for Oyedele is a converted warehouse in Bradford; she is speaking to me from her office (which was once a lift shaft). Having spent most of her teenage years without a place to call home, she now dedicates her life to providing sanctuary for others, and is able to reel off an impressive CV: Board member of Housing 21, Chair of homelessness charity Hope Housing, founder of Black on Board Ltd, creator of affordable housing firm Lara Homes and President of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH).
The last one came as a shock for Oyedele, who entered the presidential campaign convinced that she had no chance of winning; after all, she was up against Chan Kataria, CIH Board member and Group Chief Executive of housing association emh group. Then the call came through to say she had won 40% of the vote, and was the Institute’s next President.
“I thought ‘Oh my God, are you serious?’” she laughs. “I wasn’t your standard candidate; I was just this person who rambles a lot on LinkedIn. I had no campaign, so my manifesto was just: ‘I want to change the world’.”
I don’t sit on Twitter twenty-four hours a day; I’m a busy woman.
I have things to do.
It turns out that changing the world takes time. Fortunately for Oyedele, she suffers from insomnia (“a secret power that people don’t know about”), which means that on a good night she will sleep for four or five hours. Sometimes she doesn’t sleep at all, spending the nights working through to the next morning. “I feel like I have an extra day a week than most people. I’m able to get lots of things done.”
But, as her tenure nears its end, now is the time to reflect. It is telling that Oyedele has not used her year-long CIH presidency to seek out quick wins, or repeat established cliches. Instead, she seeks sustained, longer-term change for the better.
“It’s been a while since the President did anything that made anyone uncomfortable,” she explains. “I’d like to think I’m shaking things up. That’s why I’ve not chosen a presidential campaign about reducing homelessness, for example: it’s a great thing, nobody is going to disagree with you, so you don’t get any real traction.”
For the past twelve months Oyedele has campaigned relentlessly through her ‘In My Shoes’ movement for greater diversity of board members. On the whole, the construction industry has been receptive; but some suggestions – a mandatory requirement for boardrooms to be 33% non-white and 50% female, for example – were met with resistance and racism.
Most of the abuse was via X (formerly known, and better named, as Twitter). Thankfully, Oyedele was mostly oblivious to the rage her suggestion had produced – “I don’t sit on Twitter twenty-four hours a day; I’m a busy woman. I have things to do.” – but does find it strangely hypocritical that the proposal was met with such anger, considering that white men make up just 39% of the population, but 80% of boardrooms.
But those who may feel that Oyedele’s campaign for greater diversity has revealed an uncomfortable truth within the industry seem to have turned a deaf ear to her message. She is not invited to speak at their Board meetings, and they fail to attend round-table meetings about improving equality, diversity and inclusion. Those who do attend already agree with Oyedele’s message; she finds herself repeatedly preaching to the choir.
“The feedback I’ve had is that it has been a very invigorating campaign and that I’ve made a difference; but personally, I don’t see that difference,” she states. “I’m not sure that certain organisations have heard me, particularly the large housing associations. I’m not sure that they are engaged or listening. A lot of people have come and asked me to speak at their Board meetings, but none of the others have.
“So the question I ask myself is: how has my message penetrated? Have they heard me? And if they have, do they care? I’m basically challenging their existence.”
For many, the mirror that Oyedele is holding up to the housing association industry may present an uncomfortable reflection. Initial research on housing associations across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland by Black on Board, Oyedele’s training organisation for professionals of colour, found that only 6% of Board members were of black and minority ethnic background. Oyedele plans to repeat the study every two years to establish whether her message has landed, and boardroom diversity is increasing.
I’m not sure that certain organisations have heard me, particularly the large housing associations. I’m not sure that they are engaged or listening.
And so, in her final act as CIH President, Oyedele is penning an open letter to the sector, in which she will challenge the organisations which refused to engage with her and ask some searching questions of the industry as she hands the crown to Jill Haley, her successor. The letter will be featured in Housing View, as well as other publications.
Oyedele is now looking to the future, and has no plans to lose momentum. She is teaming up with Patrick Vernon, social commentator and campaigner – and the reason we have an annual Windrush Day – to formulate a Government petition to make boardroom diversity compulsory across the public sector.
She is also creating the Steve Douglas award, in memory of the St Mungo’s Chief Executive who passed away suddenly in May 2022, which will be given to the housing organisation which has done the most in that year to diversify its board. The inaugural trophy will be awarded in 2024.
Oyedele’s time is full, but precious. “I often ask myself: Lara, do you do too many things at the same time? But I have this thing about dropping dead tomorrow. I want to get everything done.”
One of those things is Lara Homes. Borne out of a period of depression following a well-documented exit from Odu-Dua, Oyedele sought to use her disposable income to benefit other people. Over time, she has built up a portfolio of nine properties which she rents out to tenants at rates below the local housing allowance, using her connections with housing auctioneers to do deals on the properties which nobody else wants.
Her ambition is to have a hundred homes, housing a hundred families who can live there until they want to leave, and not having to worry about a bad landlord or the property being sold from under their feet. The income from Lara Homes would then allow Oyedele to aim her primary focus into Black on Board, which coaches, trains and mentors ethnically diverse professionals to achieve a place in the boardroom.
Oyedele continues to spin several plates at once, then, accomplished at multi-tasking. Her fuel comes in the form of tea; Lapsang is her current favourite. In fact, Oyedele loves tea so much she lists it on her X profile, just before EastEnders (“I’d need a three-day conversation about that,” she adds).
“I just love tea. I just think if you’re happy, have a cup of tea. If you’re sad, have a cup of tea. If you’re not sure…have a cup of tea.”
We are nearing the end of our conversation. “If I was to ask you to summarise me,” Oyedele asks, “what would you say?”
Someone who is not afraid to hold a mirror up to the industry, I reply. Someone who is happy to ruffle a few feathers and is dedicated to giving back to other people.
“I think the world is lacking in care and compassion,” Oyedele affirms. “I strongly believe that if we treated each other the way we would like to be treated then the world would be a much better place. I’m convinced about that.”
And so, I ask, thinking back to your presidential pledge: do you think you have changed the world?
“I’m on the way,” says Oyedele. “I’m on the way.”
Housing View 