Gender Pay Gap Report 2024

Introduction

Berkeley’s passion and purpose is to build quality homes, strengthen communities and make a positive difference to people’s lives. Our people are integral to everything we do and we recognise that diversity of talent makes a positive contribution to our organisation. 

We fully recognise the need to retain the valuable experience we have and to attract and recruit from the full pool of UK talent, including those groups that have traditionally been under-represented in our sector. This requires workplaces that are fair, inclusive and respectful so that they are positive places to work, where everyone feels safe and supported, able to achieve their maximum potential and be part of an exciting and rewarding industry.

Our long-term business strategy, Our Vision 2030, includes Employee Experience as one of ten strategic priorities. Our goal within this area is to create a positive working environment for our people; one that fosters respect, support, wellbeing, safety and inclusivity. As part of this, we set out our approach to EDI in 2023, drawing together the many positive EDI initiatives taking place across the Group, as well as introducing new projects, targets, partnerships and commitments.

Gender Pay Reporting Requirements

The Gender Pay Gap regulations require companies to report their gender pay gap for all legal entities in Great Britain with more than 250 employees.

The gender pay gap shows the difference in average pay between women and men. It does not measure equal pay, which relates to what women and men are paid for the same or similar jobs or work of equal value. Our approach to pay is gender neutral and our analysis confirms that our pay gap is driven by the structure of our workforce.

The regulations require the pay gap figures to be reported in two ways – (i) as a mean and (ii) as a median.  The mean calculates the total amount earned across an organisation, divided by the number of people employed. The median looks at the pay of all the people in the range and identifies the mid-point, removing any distorting impacts at either end of the range. 

As required by the UK legislation, we are publishing data for the two legal entities that employ more than 250 people, St James Group Limited and Berkeley Homes (East Thames) Limited. We also feel it is important to show the total picture for the Berkeley Group which employed approximately 2,600 people across its business in the UK, regardless of employing entity. Therefore we are also voluntarily publishing consolidated data for the entire Group.

Berkeley's Gender Pay Statistics

We included all relevant employees under the regulations as at 5 April 2024 when calculating the figures below. 

The salary data includes base salary and certain allowances in line with the government guidelines, while bonus figures include total variable pay over the previous 12 months (bonus, commissions and other incentives paid, plus vesting of Long Term Incentive Plan awards). 

Gender Pay Gap Results

Proportion of Colleagues Receiving a Bonus

 

Pay Quartiles

Understanding Our Pay Gap

We acknowledge the existence of a gender pay gap. Our mean and median gender pay gaps have decreased by more than 20% since we began reporting in 2017. 

Like much of our industry, this is primarily driven by the shape of our workforce, with a lower proportion of women in senior, higher-paid roles, and more women occupying junior, lower-paid roles. This has been slowly improving year on year since we began reporting in 2017.

In addition, the pay gap is shaped by Berkeley’s strategy for procurement whereby construction labour (roles typically filled by men) is procured through subcontractor packages rather than directly employed labour; this results in fewer men occupying junior, lower paid roles.

The shape of our workforce also impacts our bonus gap, with our senior executives participating in the Company’s Long-Term Incentive Plans.

Addressing the Gap

We are committed to paying for performance equally and fairly and rewarding and retaining our best people. We believe there are real benefits in ensuring diverse views, skills and perspectives which can lead to creative thinking and more effective problem solving. We remain committed to creating an engaged and inclusive environment and seeking to attract and retain a diverse workforce. 

The proportion of women in our business varies across our teams, with a high or growing number of women in a range of roles, including people functions, sustainability, sales and marketing and finance. However, within the production areas of the business, women are still underrepresented; this includes our construction teams on site, together with supporting functions such as commercial, procurement and health and safety.  

We are taking steps to increase the proportion of women within Berkeley as a whole, focusing on our emerging talent programmes and appropriate representation within the recruitment process for experienced roles. There is also the desire in the Group to promote from within and therefore provide increased opportunities for career progression within the organisation and to more senior roles over the long-term. Central to this is the creation of a positive working environment — one that promotes respect, support, wellbeing, safety, and inclusivity for all our people.

Employee Experience

This area of our long-term business strategy places a specific focus on several areas, including employee experience and diversity and inclusion. Over the past year we have continued to develop our approach to EDI for everyone working in the Berkeley Group. We have focused on, and continue to drive, a range of actions across the business to help drive change:

Strong Leadership to Support Diversity 

Our Main Board meets the recommendations of the Hampton-Alexander Review to help increase the representation of women on boards. Currently 44% of Berkeley’s Board of Directors are female, including our Senior Independent Director. 

Each member of our Executive Director team is responsible for our approach to EDI and encouraging senior leadership support within our autonomous businesses for all aspects of its implementation. 

We committed to increasing the representation of women in management positions to 33% by 2026, ensuring greater alignment with our overall workforce. This target has already been reached, with women currently making up 34% of our people managers, and this number has been increasing year on year. Currently, 39% of our colleagues are female.

Setting the tone at a leadership level is key to creating a culture where everyone can thrive; our Leadership Competency Framework clearly outlines the importance of our management staff in creating an inclusive environment. 

This year we have reinforced our commitment to EDI at a senior level, underpinned by training on behaviours in the workplace, including all directors. Our Group values – and particularly respect for people – are used within both Group-wide and local communication to support expected behaviours within the workplace.

Many of our autonomous management teams have also had specific training on EDI within the period. For example, the East Thames management team has had detailed training to provide an enhanced awareness of EDI challenges and opportunities and practical ways to understand and embrace inclusive leadership behaviours. In addition, each individual also received one-to-one EDI coaching sessions to discuss areas they would personally like to develop. 

People Policy and Practices

In 2024 we enhanced our maternity leave policy (increasing fully paid leave from three to six months), with the view of attracting more women and retaining a more diverse pool of talent. 

Within the past year we have also introduced a new Menopause Plan to supplement the existing suite of health and wellbeing benefits, so women can get tailored menopause support and feel confident about managing symptoms. 

We are an industry that relies on site presence for construction and sales and face-to-face working to solve complex problems with a variety of stakeholders, often with early starts and tight deadlines to meet. We operate core working hours to enable people to flex their day to meet their needs. Our autonomous businesses implement agile working policies locally. This year, autonomy – measured by whether people feel they have control over how they carry out their work – saw the largest increase in score in our employee survey. 

Employee Engagement and Sentiment 

Our 2024 employee survey gave insight into how men and women feel working at Berkeley, and how employees perceive Berkeley’s efforts to maintain a diverse workforce and create an inclusive environment. We were pleased to see overall increases in engagement and diversity scores across the business. Women feel more supported by their managers and have more healthy peer relationships.  

Ambassadors to Champion Fairness, Inclusion and Respect 

We support the built environment sector’s Fairness, Inclusion and Respect (FIR) programme, which provides training and resources on EDI. This year we have increased the number of FIR Ambassadors across the business, ensuring we have a network of individuals who can help us to improve workplace culture day-to-day within their teams. We also continue to promote the use of the FIR resources to our supply chain. Within St George FIR toolbox talks have been carried out on all construction sites, and we also raised awareness with 100 of our key contractors at our Supply Chain conference in autumn 2023.

Employing Best Practice Recruitment Practices

Attracting and recruiting more women into our business is a crucial step in addressing the gender gap and fostering a culture where everyone can thrive. We are actively enhancing our proactive outreach, partnerships, and recruitment strategies to ensure that talented women see Berkeley Group as a place where they can build successful careers and make a lasting impact. 

Developing Women in the Business

All of our autonomous businesses run leadership programmes to develop the leaders of the future. Typically these include workshops on key skills together with mentoring and coaching. To supplement this, we are committed to an industry-wide programme for women developed and run by The Circle Partnership. 

The Mentoring Circle was established to increase and promote female talent retention in the built environment, through mentoring, networking and leadership development. In 2024 10 women from Berkeley successfully completed the programme out of a total of 100 participants across the Real Estate industry. We have now committed to at least three years of the programme, with 13 women joining in 2025. 

Recognising that this detailed programme for women is only available to a small number each year, this year we are piloting a bespoke programme in St James. This has been designed by The Circle Partnership to empower and support the growth of women within our business, with five modules tailored specifically to women covering content such as confidence and authenticity, understanding leadership, and communicating with impact. 

Celebrating Women Within the Business

We remain committed to fostering networking and discussions on how women thrive in the workplace. Building on the success of last year’s International Women’s Day event, we brought together another 250 colleagues from across our divisions to celebrate, inspire, and connect female talent. This event provided a fantastic platform to highlight ongoing initiatives to empower women and reinforce our commitment to creating a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging. The event included a panel session to hear about the experience of women working in different roles and we also used a photo gallery and videos to showcase and share the stories of women within our business. 

Taking Action Locally

Our autonomous businesses run networks for women and allies. Their actions range from delivering training on key areas such as imposter syndrome and public speaking, to more practical items such as expanding the range of women’s PPE and sales uniforms, alongside networking events, workshops and socials. Additionally, they have focused on topics such as supporting women returning to work after maternity leave, ensuring they have the guidance and tools needed for a smooth transition.

Skills and Training

Our second strategic priority under Our Vision 2030 focuses on ‘Future Skills’, looking at how we can create tangible long-term change within the industry and inspire a broad range of people to join the built environment sector. 

Bringing in the Next Generation of Talent

Our emerging talent programmes, such as graduate and apprenticeship pathways, offer an opportunity to bring a diverse range of people into the business and to train them to become the next generation of leaders. Success in this area will help us to make long-term lasting changes to our teams, and the wider industry. This will naturally take a period of time but we are investing for the long term. 

Our programmes continue to target a balanced intake each year. We use an anonymised application form to level the playing field for all early careers applications. By eliminating bias and emphasising skills and potential, we’ve been able to identify individuals who truly align with the roles we offer. This approach has helped us to recruit more females into the industry; more than 50% of graduate offers this year are to females. 

Inspiring People to Join the Built Environment Sector

In line with our continued work in local communities, we have continued to engage with young people in schools. We have worked with Spark! to offer tailored support and mentoring to ensure young women receive the best possible careers education in their local area, in addition to attending numerous schools and trusts to network with young women and educate them about careers in construction.  

Rob Perrins | Chief Executive, Berkeley Group
Richard Stearn | Chief Financial Officer, Berkeley Group