Responsible and resilient business

Stakeholder engagement

We engage with a wide range of stakeholders to run our business including our employees, subcontractors and suppliers, customers and communities, shareholders, local, regional and national government, NGOs, industry bodies and experts.

Community engagement

Community engagement plays an important role in developing effective schemes and supports good relationships with the communities we work in. Every one of our sites has a tailored planning and community engagement strategy and a clear point of contact.

We use a range of methods to inform local people about our plans, including our website, meetings, exhibitions, workshops and information boards.

Our Political and Community Engagement Toolkit helps our teams to consistently engage a wide range of stakeholders in the planning process and to use research to understand local needs and priorities. Our Community Communication Plan provides a step-by-step framework for our regional businesses to communicate with the community and prospective buyers throughout the lifecycle of a development.

Our Engagement Academy gives our land and planning and technical teams the skills, knowledge and confidence to run best practice engagement processes. The training covers the planning process, the roles and responsibilities of local planning authorities and their members, legal requirements, the purpose of engagement, how to deal with difficult issues and questions and a range of other topics. It includes role play exercises to help colleagues practise engagement techniques.

Political engagement

Regulation has an impact on our business and we think it is important to share our views with policy makers at the local, regional and national level.
This includes direct engagement such as responding to Government consultations, engagement with local and regional government through the planning process and engagement via our membership of trade associations.

We engage with local authorities, parish councils, Homes England, the Greater London Authority (GLA), regional government, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Nature England and other public sector organisations to understand their priorities and share our views.

Public policy work is carried out in a way that reflects our values and cultural principles and key policies such as our Business Conduct Policy. We strive for clear, open and accurate communication. It is our policy not to make donations to political parties, campaigns or organisations.

As well as site-specific engagement, we participate in the development of strategic frameworks, Local Plans and Neighbourhood Plans, which consider broader development needs and enable local people to shape new developments in their area. This often includes working closely with local authorities to develop the local design code as part of the local development plan.

Industry association memberships

We engage with Government through our membership of industry organisations such as the Home Builders Federation (HBF), Future Homes Hub and the National House-Building Council (NHBC). Regional businesses are also members of trade associations, for example our Scottish businesses are members of Homes for Scotland.

Recent public policy engagement

We engage with central and devolved Government on issues relating to planning and sustainability.

Political parties: Engagement with the main political parties in the run-up to the UK’s general election on topics relating to housing policy, nature recovery, nutrient neutrality, infrastructure delivery and communities.
House of Lords Built Environment Committee Grey Belt Inquiry: We participated in this inquiry into the use of Grey Belt land. We were supportive of the principle but raised concerns that some of the proposed requirements could affect viability.
National Planning Policy Framework consultation: We responded to this consultation by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, supporting introduction of a mandatory housing target, the reintroduction of the requirement for councils to demonstrate a five year housing land supply and the requirement for authorities to review green belt land where housing can’t be met by other means.
Strengthening Planning Policy for Brownfield Development consultation: We responded to this consultation by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities expressing our support in principle and sharing our view that housing needs cannot be met through the use of brownfield land alone due to a limited supply and its unsuitability for some types of housing.
New Homes Accelerator programme call for evidence: We submitted sites to this programme which aims to speed up the delivery of large-scale housing developments across England by addressing the causes of delays and obstacles to development.

Investor engagement

We proactively engage with investors on our approach to ESG issues throughout the year. We also participate in several global and sectoral benchmarks used by investors, including:

Constituent of the Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Index and included in the S&P Sustainability Yearbook 2025
Constituent of the FTSE4Good Index series
MSCI AAA rating
Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating of Low and included in its 2025 Industry ESG Top-Rated Companies List
Member of Next Generation, ranked fifth with a silver rating in 2024 with a score of 68% (2023: third, 71%, Gold). Next Generation is a rigorous and detailed sustainability performance benchmark of UK homebuilders
CDP Climate Change (A-), CDP Water Security (C), CDP Forests (B-), CDP Supplier Engagement (A)

Industry organisations and experts

We partner with NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and expert organisations in areas such as urban design, ecology and innovation to help us create sustainable communities across the UK. For example, we are partnering with Hedgehog Street and Buglife to help us implement aspects of our environment strategy.

Many environmental issues for our sector are systemic and require collaboration among regulators, industry organisations, housebuilders and the supply chain. We work with others to tackle industry-wide challenges including through the Home Builders Federation, the Future Homes Hub (FHH) and the Supply Chain Sustainability School. In 2024, we were involved in a number of FHH working groups including those on metrics, embodied and whole life carbon and zero-carbon ready homes.

Materiality assessment

We focus on the sustainability risks, opportunities, impacts and dependencies that are most material to our business and our stakeholders.

We conduct regular materiality assessments (at least every three years) with our most recent assessment concluding in 2023. Our assessment used a ‘double materiality’ approach to identify the issues that have most impact on the value of our business and those where our business activities have most impact on people or the environment. Issues do not have to be material from both a financial and stakeholder perspective to be included.

Our most recent assessment was concluded in 2023. It was conducted by an external consultant and used a ‘double materiality’ approach to identify the socio-economic and environmental issues that have most impact on the value of our business and those where our business activities have most impact on people or the environment.

Key steps in the methodology included:

Identifying impacts–a long list of impact areas was identified based on our previous materiality processes and a review of external reporting standards
Evaluation and prioritisation–a range of inputs were used to prioritise the identified impact areas. This included stakeholder interviews, a media and policy review, reference to sector-specific standards, multi-stakeholder and corporate benchmarks, and alignment with our business strategy and risk management process
Review and validation–the findings were reviewed by members of our senior leadership, and some minor adjustments were made to reflect business priorities

We recognise the important link between the Company’s material impacts and risk management, and our material impacts have been aligned to our Principal Risks, as set out in our Annual Report.

Comparing the significance of different types of impacts is not straightforward, particularly where quantitative and comparable data is not available. We will continue to develop our approach to materiality and impact assessment and regularly update our assessment.

Impact area	Impacts, risks and opportunities for our stakeholders and our business
Customer wellbeing in our homes	Design and build quality of new homes Safety of new homes Customer service Enabling customers to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle
Quality and sustainability of new communities	Placemaking and the location, design and layout of our sites Connectivity of our sites and access to infrastructure and community facilities and transport Enabling residents to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle
Affordability and accessibility of new homes	Pricing and running costs of new homes Access to affordable social housing Supply of new housing Accessibility of new homes

Impact area	Impacts, risks and opportunities for our stakeholders and our business
Health, safety and wellbeing	Mental health and wellbeing in construction Health and safety on our building sites for employees and contractors/ site operatives Occupational health
Inclusion and equality	Inclusive employment practices Diversity of our workforce Gender balance Equal pay Disability inclusion
Skills development	Employee training and development Investment in construction skills Youth employment and apprenticeships Skills for sustainability
Employment practices	Labour relations Labour rights Living wage Employee engagement
Responsible sourcing and human rights	Human rights due diligence Labour and human rights standards in our supply chain Living wage Fair treatment of suppliers

Impact area	Impacts, risks and opportunities for our stakeholders and our business
Climate change	Mitigation - the impact on the climate of emissions from our operations, supply chain and the homes we build. Adaptation - the impact of physical and transition climate risks on our business.
Nature	Our impact on nature through the the land we own and develop. Impacts on nature in our supply chain. The physical and financial impacts of declining biodiversity and ecosystem damage on our business.
Resource use and waste	The impacts of our resource use (including materials and land) and our waste on the natural environment. Impacts on the business connected to resource use and depletion of natural resources including regulatory and financial impacts. Opportunities arising from the circular economy and more efficient use of resources.
Water quality and management	Impact on local water quality, management and availability during construction. Impact on water quality and availability from new homes in use and the supply chain. The impact of water-related regulation and planning restrictions on our business including in relation to flood risk, nutrient neutrality and water stress and scarcity.
Site environmental impacts	The impact of construction on soil, water and air quality around our sites. Costs to the business of site environmental measures and potential financial and reputational risks from any non-compliance.

Impact area	Impacts, risks and opportunities for our stakeholders and our business
Financial performance and economic contribution	Profitability Contribution to economic growth through jobs, taxes and planning obligations Investment in innovation Impact on local economic development during and after construction
Governance and transparency	Corporate culture and values Corporate governance practices ESG risk management ESG reporting and transparency
Ethical and responsible business	Ethical conduct standards Community engagement and planning compliance Public policy Responsible marketing, Privacy and data security Charitable giving Meeting high ethical standards protects business reputation and reduces risks of fines/ non-compliance

Investors

Shareholder centre

Sustainability

Our company

Stakeholder engagement

Employees

Customers

Suppliers

Community engagement

Political engagement

Investor engagement

Industry organisations and experts

Materiality assessment