LBGTQ+ support and the B3Living Board
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Board member Stephen Glover on LGBTQ+ support at B3Living

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

As a board member, my job is to help influence the strategic direction of B3Living. I like to describe it as providing steers and direction as to where we want the business to go.

On top of that, we ensure that the right structures are in place to help with the smooth running of B3Living and ensuring that B3L is complying with regulations.

At our board meetings, we discuss all sorts of issues that relate to B3Living, and we provide different perspectives to understand and address them.

Recently, I have enjoyed contributing to the development of the three-year Equity, Diversity and Inclusion strategy.

Having insight into the LGBTQ+ community has helped me understand some of the barriers and challenges faced.

For example, if we think about safety, your home is the one place where you’d expect to be safe. But for many LGBTQ+ people, the fear of abuse as soon as they step out of the door is very much present.

Though we often celebrate the progress made to accept and include the LGBTQ+ community, it is easy to forget that progress can go backwards really quickly.

So, it is our duty as a housing provider to make sure our customers feel safe and welcomed in their homes and neighbourhoods.

For me, taking practical steps can drive inclusion. At B3Living, that might mean thinking about the customer’s voice and how we bring that into our decision-making.

Though I work in finance now, my background is quite varied and, I’d say it has helped me in my role at the B3Living board.

The arts have been a really big part of my life – I worked as an actor after I left university and then as play director for a few years. I’ve always wanted to combine all the things that I like about acting into my career – engaging and communicating with people, and storytelling.

Counselling seemed to bring these together which was very interesting to me. So, I trained as a counsellor and now run a private psychotherapy practice specialising on supporting LGBTQ+ clients.

Whether I was directing plays, contributing to a board discussion or managing someone, I’ve learnt that it is incredibly valuable to understand people and where they’re coming from.

I think it’s really important to think about different perspectives and try to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Appreciating others’ experiences and how that influences the way they think and feel will help us all communicate more effectively.


As board members, managers, officers, community members, we need to ask ourselves: what can we do to help LGBTQ+ people feel included and empowered?

One practical thing we have done at B3Living is to take part in the LGBTQ+ Housing Pledge.

The Housing Pledge demonstrates how we’re showing our commitment to our LGBTQ+ customers to make sure that they have the best experience when dealing with us and whilst living in their homes.

I am really pleased that we are taking part in this scheme.

You can find out more about it here.

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