Corporate Responsibility

Corporate Responsibility (CR) is a priority for Barratt Developments.

Our CR policy comprises seven strategic objectives. These are to help embed into the business our actions in the areas of: governance and management systems, creating value for society, managing our environmental impact, procurement and design, occupational health and safety, employment and diversity and our engagement with our stakeholders and communities.

We have also evolved a risk-based approach to CR. We carried out a non-financial risk assessment ensuring that plans and procedures are in place for risks of highest priority. We identified priority areas of risk as: climate change, our supply chain, access to land and planning, water supply, unfavourable media exposure, workplace accidents, the lack of skilled labour in construction and customer and community dissatisfaction.

We are already beginning to see the business benefits that our commitment to CR is bringing. Highlights include:

• we have a track record of investing to improve customer service. Some 85 per cent of our existing customers say that they would recommend us to a friend. We plan to raise this figure even higher;
• we are a member of the FTSE4Good Index and are also the only housebuilder to appear in the ‘Top 100 Companies that Count’, demonstrating a commitment to continually improving our impact on society and the environment; and
• investment in people is critical to our future success. We currently have over 500 apprentices receiving training and have doubled our graduate intake.