Council to vet suppliers’ LGBT credentials
A LONDON council has demanded that companies in its supply chain prove their commitment to approved LGBT inclusion values.
Labour-run Camden borough council has introduced measures to ensure its policies and processes are inclusive.
The local authority will also use its “position of power” to project LGBT inclusion beyond the council, by insisting that outside businesses demonstrate their commitment to approved values in order to be commissioned by the council.
Camden is aiming to “positively influence” through this policy, according to information from the local authority.
It states that one of the ways in which the council has sought to make itself more inclusive has been by “building our commitment to LGBTQ+ equality into our procurement processes”.
This is in order to “work with businesses whose values align with our own, and to use our position of power to positively influence”.
The council also states: “We are beginning to ask businesses to demonstrate their commitment to LGBTQ+ equality before we procure them.”
The measure for businesses is among those brought in to increase inclusion at the local authority, such as introducing trans awareness sessions, partnering with Stonewall and Proud Employers, and celebrating dates on an Inclusion Calendar, including Bi Visibility Day and Transgender Day of Remembrance.
The council has also consulted residents on plans to increase “diversity in the public realm”, as part of a mayoral push to make states in the capital more diverse, which cover “all protected characteristics and intersectionality”.
The council previously launched a project to examine potentially offensive views of historical figures represented in the area, including Virginia Woolf.
Howard Cox, a London Mayoral candidate for the Reform Party, criticised the council for using the promise of public funds to influence the policies of private business.
He said: “This ultra-left wing council should be censured for their needless discriminatory behaviour against private businesses. “What their potential and existing suppliers offer to Camden’s local taxpayers has nothing to do with marginalized sexuality and gender identity employment policies.
“These businesses should be judged only on the quality of product, service and value for money they offer. Yet another clueless London Labour council that has lost sight of all common sense for a minority.
Inclusion has been at the heart of recent initiatives in the capital, and earlier this year the Mayor of London funded a project to provide “LGBTQ+ housing free from oppression”.
A burgeoning group called First Brick Housing announced it plan to build homes for specifically for “marginalised” Londoners and the organisation, which is the first of its kind in the UK, received official backing.
Funding from City Hall was given to the housing project which plans to provide homes for LGBTQ+ people to ensure they are “free from oppression”.
A description of the scheme in a breakdown of City Hall funding seen by The Daily Telegraph reads: “Homes for marginalised LGBTQ+ Londoners. Project that seeks to provide homes where this community can live safely and free of oppression.
“The project will facilitate dialogue around the topic and inform future decisions to demonstrably influence and shape direction and the housing they will eventually provide.”