Are the construction and property industries are really making progress on inclusivity, or just making promises? Are we still seeing discrimination and unconscious bias within the built environment sector? Or are we happily witnessing progress?

What does inclusivity really look like in practice - and are we genuinely moving the dial, or just reshaping the same conversation?

On paper, the sector looks more diverse than it once did but there is still a long way to go. If we look at gender alone, women make up around 15 per cent of the UK construction workforce and roughly 31 per cent of partners or directors in architecture practices.

Despite the number of public pledges, the gender pay gap in construction still sits at around 17 per cent, barely shifting in the past five years.

Representation of ethnic minorities in construction hovers near 7 per cent, compared to about 14 per cent across the overall UK workforce, showing that racial diversity also lags behind national averages. (Statistics from the Office for National Statistics and the Construction Industry Training Board.)

Guests:

Marsha Ramroop, author of Building Inclusion and founder of Unheard Voice; Sarah Hayford, CEO and founder of The Land Collective and driving force behind Black Girls in Property; Rebecca Lovelace, Deputy Chair of CIC’s EDI Committee and founder of Building People; and Dr Valerie Vaughan-Dick, CEO of RIBA.

Links to discussions:

Building Inclusion by Marsha Ramroop

https://www.buildinginclusion.info/

The Land Collective

https://thelandcollective.com/

Black Girls in Property

https://bgip.thelandcollective.com/

Building People

https://www.buildingpeople.org.uk/

CIC - Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

https://www.cic.org.uk/committees-and-networks/diversity-and-inclusion-panel

Sustainability is meant to be for everyone but when it comes to housing and communities, is sustainable living actually more of a luxury?

In this episode of BE Sustainable, we ask a bold question: are ‘sustainable communities’ genuinely inclusive, or are they the preserve of the middle classes?

The discussion comes in light of the UK Government’s latest New Towns proposal, which calls for 12 new settlements and at least 10,000 homes in each - with 40% designated as affordable and with an eye on environmental sustainability. But are ‘sustainable’ new builds more expensive to build? And if so, are we pricing lower-income workers and families out of the sustainable housing market?

In this studio debate, host Mike Speight is joined by two leading voices shaping the future of British housing:

• Professor Samer Bagaeen, Head of Town Planning at the University of the Built Environment and Vice-President-elect of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
• Dr Elanor Warwick, Head of Strategy, Policy, Evidence and Research at Clarion Housing Group, the UK’s largest social landlord.

Sources of ‘Sustainable Housing UK’ topics discussed:

1. UK Government’s New Towns proposal

2. Clarion Housing Group Annual Report

3. Annual UK Fuel Poverty statistics - 2024

4. Energy Efficiency of Housing in England and Wales: 2025

5. The Guardian article on increases in housing Service Charges

Presenter: Mike Speight
Guests: Dr James Ritson, Cecilia Pesce, Jordan Turner
Jingles by: Matthew Smith, Programme Leader BSc Real Estate Management

Traditional brickmaking produces over 1.3 billion tonnes of CO₂ each year — more than the entire aviation industry. So should we cling to the comforting warmth of brick, or finally face up to the environmental cost of our most familiar building material?

In this episode of the University of the Built Environment's BE Sustainable podcast, presenter Mike Speight explores one of the built environment’s most provocative questions: Should we bin the brick?

Mike is joined by:

Dr James Ritson, Programme Leader for MSc Innovation in Sustainable Built Environments at the University of the Built Environment — who argues the problem isn’t how we make bricks, but whether we should use them at all.

Cecilia Pesce, Principal Research Engineer at earth4Earth — pioneers of a carbon-storing brick designed to turn waste soil into a climate-positive material.

Jordan Turner, Senior Lecturer at the University of the Built Environment, whose PhD examined sustainability in the housing sector and the policy barriers preventing greener construction.

Together, they tackle some of the key questions at the heart of the low-carbon construction debate:

• Can innovation make bricks part of a net-zero future, or are we stuck with a carbon-heavy habit?
• Why are sustainable alternatives like hempcrete still treated as niche?
• Are regulations, costs and cultural attachment to the 'look' of brick holding us back from genuine progress?

Hear Jordan Turner describe the M&S Cheshire Oaks project built with hempcrete and why developers struggle to use similar materials today. Listen as Dr James Ritson challenges the very necessity of brick, while Cecilia Pesce reveals how her team’s carbon-storing bricks transform waste into a building block for a circular economy.

From carbon emissions and cultural identity to policy, price and perception, this lively debate delves into the future of how we build - and what it will take for sustainable materials to move from pilot projects to mainstream adoption.

Click play to hear the full discussion and decide for yourself: Should we bin the traditional brick?