Operational Excellence

We have a team of divisional health and safety managers who provide expert advice and guidance to the project teams on a daily basis extending across safety, occupational health and wellbeing, and welfare standards. In addition, our Group health and safety audit team conduct regular audits on every site and share lessons learned with all divisions, and regular audits are completed by Directors. 

Central to our approach are three core programmes – Good Order, Good Work and Good Health.  

We will:

• continue to target zero harm, with our industry-leading approach to health and safety.  
• continue to operate Group-wide Health and Safety Standards and will launch a new Group-wide Management System that will apply to both our people and contractors working on our sites.  

Excellence through detail is one of our core values. It is evident in the way we work every day and our longstanding reputation for building high quality homes.  

Ensuring long-term product stewardship through quality homes requires quality processes. Our systematic approach to homebuilding, in line with our stringent Building Safety and Quality Assurance (BSQA) arrangements, will ensure compliance with the Building Safety Act and help us to develop safer buildings. 

We have a team of divisional quality managers who provide expert advice and guidance to the project teams on a daily basis. In addition, our Group BSQA audit team conduct regular, themed audits on every site. 

We will:

• continue to implement robust BSQA arrangements and ensure employees are adequately trained and competent, together with our supply chain.  
• adjust and embed processes in response to evolving knowledge and experience of the Building Safety Act and Gateway requirements. 

Having the right systems in place is key to enable our business to operate effectively. 

Our digital project collaboration platform will be utilitised across the business to improve our activities and enable the golden thread of information to consistently be retained throughout the development process; which in turn can feed in to our new consultant database.  

We will:

• implement a new system that will digitise procurement workflows, covering; procurement schedules, tenders, comparison and approvals and reporting. 
• continue to use Building Information Modelling (BIM) on high-risk buildings, following our BIM Framework to ensure the appropriate level of federation and collaboration.  

Our operations are rooted in sustainable, ethical decision making.  

When appointing new trade packages, we prioritise overall value rather than cost. This means we make a holistic assessment that considers environmental impact, skills, and ethical considerations such combatting modern slavery, labour abuse and child labour. 

Building on this, we work closely with our key contractors to both improve our processes and support their ESG development.  

We will:

• adhere to the Fair Payment Code.
• ensure the appropriate use of data and security measures around information in relation to cyber security.

We are building a responsible and constructive supply chain; one that is productive, practical and profitable, sustainable, ethical and dependable. 

We support our supply chain, sharing relevant knowledge and industry updates, and actively participating in related industry forums.  

As a demand side supporter of the Code for Construction Product Information, we will ensure that our strategic suppliers and manufacturers have achieved or are working towards the related conformance.

Our Common Materials Strategy, and manufacturer agreements, will be further extended to ensure strong and resilient arrangements are in place for key materials, with assurance that suitable levels of quality, safety and sustainability are being met.  

We will: 

• create agreements with professional services, to ensure a consistent approach for all of our suppliers.