Suppliers and subcontractors play a critical role in our business and we collaborate with them on sustainability topics.
Our Supply Chain Policy sets standards for suppliers on safety, quality, ethics, human rights and the environment. Our Supplier Code of Conduct requires suppliers to respect workers’ human rights and prohibits all forms of modern slavery. It is embedded into our Framework Agreements (contracts) with Group suppliers (those managed by our Group procurement team).
We include sustainability disclosure requirements in our digital tender system for Group suppliers covering employment standards, modern slavery, real living wage, environmental management, climate change, waste, packaging, nature and water.
We carry out on-site visits to new Group suppliers, backed up by onsite review meetings around once a year. We have quarterly review meetings with national partner suppliers who provide strategically important products. Depending on supplier category, these reviews cover sustainability issues such as waste, carbon emissions, modern slavery and real living wage.
In 2024, we updated our approach to assessing risks in our supply chain. Each Group supplier is being assigned a risk rating based on factors including cost and security of supply as well ESG-related risks. This will enable us to prioritise higher-risk suppliers for further engagement and follow up. In 2025, Group suppliers will be asked to provide us with details of their ESG strategies and targets to inform our future supplier engagement.
Human rights and modern slavery
We respect the human rights of employees, workers in our supply chain, customers, local communities and others affected by our business activities. We are guided by international standards such as the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.
We respect the labour rights of our employees and those working on our behalf, including the rights to freedom of assembly and association, and non-discrimination. We address these rights through our human resources policies and our work on issues such as health, safety and diversity.
We do not tolerate any form of slavery, forced labour, child labour or human trafficking in our business or supply chain. We have two e-learning modules for employees to raise awareness of modern slavery risks and how to engage with suppliers on this issue. We require our tier 1 suppliers to confirm their compliance with our modern slavery policy during the tender process and via our framework agreements. We also engage with sub-contractors working on our sites to ensure they are implementing appropriate policies and processes to mitigate modern slavery risks.
We have been involved in a project with the Supply Chain Sustainability School to better understand human rights risks in the PV panel supply chain and have engaged with our PV panel suppliers on their approach to mitigating human rights risks.
Read our Modern Slavery Act Transparency statement www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/corporate/sustainability/modern-slavery-act.
Equality, diversity and inclusion in our supply chain
We are starting to engage with suppliers on ED&I and have asked key suppliers to provide us with details on their ED&I strategies. We will also be engaging with our sub-contractors on respectful workplace training.
We are participating in the Building Bridges Network, which brings together housebuilders and suppliers to develop best practice for equality, diversity and inclusion in our industry.
Small and medium sized suppliers
We work with many small and medium sized (SME) businesses who provide labour, trades and services to our construction sites. Many of our partners are local and family-run businesses and working with them supports the local economy around our sites. We hold regular engagement and ‘Meet the Buyer’ events to help SME businesses to work with us and support them to comply with our HSE procedures. We also partnering with the Construction Industry Training Board and the Home Building Skills Partnership to support some of our mid-sized subcontractors to hire apprentices.
We have self-billing arrangements in place for subcontractors which automate and speed up the invoicing and payment process. This can be particularly important for small firms working with us.
Prompt payment
We are committed to treating suppliers fairly and paying on time. Our standard payment terms for suppliers and contractors are to pay by the end of the following month after receipt of invoice. The payment terms for contractors are 37 days. We have self-billing arrangements in place for subcontractors which automate and speed up the invoicing and payment process. This can be particularly important for small firms working with us.