gender pay gap report 2025
introduction
Welcome to our annual gender pay gap report.
This report reflects the progress we’ve made over the past year and our ongoing commitment to reducing the gender pay gap.
At believe housing, we are dedicated to removing barriers and creating an equitable, inclusive workplace where every colleague can thrive. Gender pay gap reporting is a vital tool — it helps us measure the impact of our actions and identify where we need to do more.
We’re proud of the team we have and the steps we’ve taken, but we know there’s more to do. Our goal is clear: eliminate the gender pay gap and achieve true gender parity. We want everyone to feel they belong, understand the value they bring, and see the role they play in shaping our success.
Alan Smith
Our chief executive
our approach
We believe in life without barriers.
As a business we are committed to our values of ‘do the right thing for our customers, our colleagues and our business’. We want to create an equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace that will enable us to build on our commitment to our:
• customers – deliver excellence for our customers and play a positive role in our communities
• colleagues – be a great place to work with a flexible, high-performing workforce who do the right thing
• business – be financially secure and well governed, adapting to challenges, while meeting the evolving needs of our customers.
Alongside these values, our behaviours provide our colleagues with a framework that sets out our expectations of how colleagues can support our culture every day.
1. care about the basics
2. work well together
3. achieve great results
4. keep improving
5. be at our best
6. make a positive difference
We want our colleagues to feel respected, appreciated and valued. At the same time, we are proud that we have created an environment where our colleagues see believe housing as a great place to work and somewhere they can be their authentic selves.
The gender pay gap
The gender pay gap is the difference across the entire organisation between the average earnings of men and women, regardless of their roles.
Gender Pay Gap Reporting
Gender pay gap reporting is a legal requirement in the UK for employers with more than 250 employees in the public, private and voluntary sector to publish data annually showing the difference in average pay between men and women in their workforce. The data is based on calculations set by the government and is from a snapshot of pay data on a date chosen by the Government Equalities Office.
While gender pay gap reporting is a legal requirement for organisations of our size, at believe housing our commitment goes much further. We gather and monitor this data not simply to meet statutory obligations, but because it is fundamental to our values and our ambition to fully eradicate the gender pay gap. The insights we gain from this process directly inform our actions, helping us to identify areas for improvement and drive meaningful change. Our approach is rooted in transparency and accountability, ensuring that our progress is measured and that we remain focused on creating an equitable workplace for all.
The report measures the difference in average hourly earnings between male and female employees across an organisation, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. It is not the same as equal pay. Equal pay means paying men and women the same for the same job, which is already a legal requirement.
our gender pay gap data
The information set out is based on pay data as of 5 April 2025 for 638 colleagues.
Our colleagues are …
males
females
Median gender pay gap
To calculate our median gender pay gap, we first rank all our people by their hourly pay. Then we compare what the woman in the middle of the female pay range received with what the man in the middle of the male pay range received. The difference between these figures is the median gender pay gap.
When comparing average hourly rates (median), women receive 94 pence for everyone £1 that men receive.
| Year | Pence | % |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 94 | 6.4 |
| 2024 | 92 | 8.1 |
| 2023 | 92 | 8.1 |
| 2022 | 93 | 7.5 |
Mean gender pay gap
To calculate the mean pay gap, we add together all the hourly pay rates that women received, divided by the number of women in our workforce. We then repeat this calculation for men. The difference between these figures is the mean gender pay gap.
When comparing average hourly rates (mean), women receive 99 pence for everyone £1 that men receive.
| Year | Pence | % |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 99 | 1.1 |
| 2024 | 98 | 2.0 |
| 2023 | 98 | 1.7 |
| 2022 | 96 | 4.2 |
Pay quartiles
A pay quartile is a way of grouping employees based on their pay across the organisation, split into four equal groups (quartiles). Using quartiles enables us to understand the proportion of men and women across the pay levels. Data in the graph is representative of as of 5, April 2025.
| Quartile | Number | % | Headcount per quartile | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Men | Women | ||
| Upper quartile (75-100%) | 90 | 69 | 56.6 | 43.4 | 159 |
| Upper-middle quartile (50%-75%) | 105 | 55 | 65.5 | 34.4 | 160 |
| Lower-middle quartile (25%-50%) | 98 | 61 | 61.1 | 38.4 | 159 |
| Lower quartile (9%-23%) | 53 | 107 | 33.1 | 66.9 | 160 |
Bonus pay gap
believe housing does not operate a bonus scheme and did not pay any non-consolidated payments to colleagues in the 2025 pay award. Therefore, there was no bonus pay gap.
tracking our progress
When gender pay gap reporting became mandatory in 2017, our median gender pay gap was 11.2% and our mean pay gap was 14.7%. It has now reduced to 6.4% and 1.1%.
This is the ninth year that we have reported on the gender pay gap, and it provides valuable data that we can analyse to identify trends and understand progress.
We’re happy to report that both our median and mean gender pay gap continue to narrow as we focus on fairness, equity and inclusion in everything we do.
Changes to our workforce from people joining and leaving the organisation can have an impact. In the last year we have had more females join at entry level and higher-level groups, whilst more males have joined in the lower middle and upper middle levels. Men still make up most of the higher and upper-middle pay levels.
We share our gender pay gap data early, which means we cannot directly compare it with other organisations. Instead, we compare it with national results from the previous year.
- In 2024, the UK’s median gender pay gap was 13.1%, meaning women earned 87p for every £1 earned by men. At believe housing, women now earn 94p for every £1 earned by men.
- In 2024, the UK’s mean gender pay gap was 6.9%, meaning women earned 93p for every £1 earned by men. This compares to 99p now for an average female colleague at believe housing.
reviewing our 2024-25 commitments
Our pay gap is improving compared to the UK average. Even small changes in staff levels across pay groups can affect our figures. That’s why we keep reviewing our progress, checking the impact of past actions, and planning where to focus next.
Last year, we took steps to improve our gender pay gap and tracked the impact as part of our equalities action plan. Our focus was on:
- continuing to develop our working practices
- providing opportunities to share stories and support
- utilising our data to make informed decisions.
We’re pleased to share some of our achievements with you:
At believe housing, we want to build an inclusive workplace starting with how we recruit and attract diverse candidates. In 2025 our candidate gender profile represents 53.8% of male and 46.2% of female candidates. Our property/trade related roles continue to be highly represented by male candidates and typical back-office roles represented by female candidates.
We have simplified our application process to remove barriers that could deter potential candidates. Previously, candidates were required to complete a lengthy and complex application form, which could be time-consuming and challenging. We have now introduced a simplified process that allows applicants to submit a short application form alongside their CV. This change is designed to make applying quicker and easier, ensuring that talented individuals can focus on showcasing their skills and experience rather than navigating unnecessary complexity.
Our flexible working and support systems also help attract a wide range of talent and we continue to improve our practices by using feedback to create a welcoming workplace for everyone. In our Best Companies survey this year, completed by 80.83% of our colleagues we ranked 1st in the social housing sector, 7th in the region and 15th in the best large companies to work for nationally. We are also tracking higher than average compared to other 3* entry companies in questions relating to fair deal across all job grades.
We have committed to:
- work with organisations that support underrepresented groups and advertise our roles using a range of networks including, women in social housing, women in manual trades, armed forces and family forces jobs.
- use adverts that emphasise our dedication to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI)
- work in partnership with internal stakeholders to create opportunities for those who experience barriers to employment
Our people manager essentials programme ensures managers are equipped to provide inclusive practices, reduce bias and support colleagues throughout the colleague lifecycle.
We ran a flexible working trial with our finance team. The aim was to test new ways of working beyond our current approach. Whilst we decided not to continue and extend the four day working week, we gathered the learnings from the pilot and have shared those across the organisation and they will continue to shape improvements to our ways of working to meet the needs of customers, colleagues, and business.
We’ve strengthened our employee offer by introducing a new benefits platform, Navigate. This new online portal provides colleagues with easy-to-access information about the benefits we provide, as part of their employment with believe housing, and how they are able to use them.
This includes the introduction of a new benefit, which allows our colleagues to buy up to five additional days annual leave to add to their standard holiday entitlement and a new healthcare cover for colleagues and their families.
We’ve held events to bring colleagues together and support their wellbeing, at summer and Christmas. We continue our commitment to WISH (Women in Social Housing) North East. This provides opportunities for colleagues to access training and development, and networking events. And we created our own Board training programme, which led to the appointment of a new female Board Member in the last year.
We currently link in with a number of schools across the Durham area and provide talks and careers advice for young women promoting the numerous construction roles on offer. We also work with The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) who have provided a day in the life documents of the construction roles that women hold in our organisation.
We have reviewed how we collect and use people data. As a consequence, we now use dashboards to show key team information like turnover, performance, and colleague demographics. These insights help us to identify trends and make better decisions about talent and engagement and encourages greater visibility around key topics including pay equity. This provides us with greater transparency and the ability to measure and action focus areas more quickly by allowing us to understand where and why pay disparities may exist. This layer of transparency encourages our leaders to address issues proactively, rather than reactively, by making data driven decisions that reduces the risk of unintentionally widening any pay gaps that may exist.
Whilst we’re proud of the work we’ve done, progress in some areas hasn’t advanced as much as we’d hoped. This is largely due to the size and scope of our organisation. Nevertheless, we remain committed to embedding diversity and inclusion in every aspect of our work and will be focussing our approach in 2025-2026.
what we’re hoping to achieve in 2025-26
We know that closing the gender pay gap takes long-term commitment with sustained actions to achieve results. Our data shows us that the action we’re taking is having an impact as our gender pay gap data continues to narrow, but there’s still work to be done.
Tracking our pay gap data helps us agree an action plan and evaluate its impact. In believe housing, a significantly higher proportion of women are clustered in entry level roles (and paid within the lower quartile). Men are more evenly spread across the lower middle and upper middle pay quartiles and have been more likely than women to occupy more senior roles.
This year we will continue to take positive actions to narrow our pay gaps further in the year ahead, as well as utilising our data to make informed business decisions, to help address disadvantages and underrepresentation of women within our lower middle and upper middle pay quartiles.
| Target | Action |
|---|---|
| Create greater opportunity for diverse and underrepresented groups across our workforce | Implement targeted advertising and outreach initiatives that will help us attract a more diverse range of applicants. |
| Use neutral language in job adverts, addressing gender stereotypes and highlighting career growth opportunities to attract male colleagues into entry level roles. | |
| Enhance career development opportunities supporting female colleagues into management roles through career conversations, coaching, mentoring and skills development. | |
| Clarify and promote our approach to flexible working options, including part-time and job-sharing opportunities. | |
| Pilot a scheme aimed at supporting long-term unemployed single parents into construction roles by providing training and employment opportunities. | |
| Ensure women are equally represented in professional leadership experiential learning programmes like Edge and Gem. | |
| Provide a reward and benefits offer that supports an inclusive workplace | Review our family leave entitlements and pay including maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave. |
| Help colleagues better understand their total reward package through embedded use of the new Navigate benefits platform. | |
| Promote the benefits of our new Healthcare Scheme and how this can provide added support to working parents and those with health concerns. | |
| Assess the availability and quality of our current ethnicity and disability data in preparation for future mandatory pay gap reporting requirements | |