Built Equally is launching its official event next Thursday, 10th September, with Gary Melton and partner in crime Chloe Xidhas.

Built Equally didn’t start with a strategy or a business plan. It started with unfinished conversations. The kind of conversations where people agree something isn’t right and then go back to doing things the way they always have. We both work in construction (albeit from slightly different angles). We both care about the industry. And between us, we’ve seen how often culture, leadership and inequality are acknowledged privately and avoided publicly. Built Equally exists to bring those conversations into the open and move them forward in a way that actually improves how we work. We have experienced first-hand how deeply culture shapes factors like retention, quality and performance. How leadership behaviours influence who gets opportunity. How environments where people aren't comfortable to speak up are detrimental at project level. We believe that progress requires people in positions of influence to pause and recognise where advantage exists - to understand it, and to use it responsibly. Built Equally is about accountability, in the simplest sense of the word. Not calling people out - but calling people in. We don’t claim to have all the answers. What we do believe is that awareness and openness will lead to raised standards in our industry, for both our people and our projects.