Posted on 14 December 2022
Our 2021-22 Environmental, Social and Governance report (PDF, 2MB) shows how we’ve improved our sustainability performance over the past year.
For example, nearly all (97%) of the homes we built were at EPC band A or B and we’ve invested millions of pounds in improving our existing homes, installing new heating, insulation, doors and windows, to make them more energy-efficient and cheaper to run. As a result, 72% of our homes are now EPC band C or higher, up from 66% last year.
Alongside providing affordable homes on long term agreements, our social impact teams provided 1,763 customers with advice and advocacy in money and debt, welfare benefits and employment, and our supply chain partners generated £1.65m of social value for customers and communities.
“Taking a truly sustainable approach means thinking how to best look after customers and the world around us, while also thinking about the future. Taking a long-term approach helps us think about and tackle some of the major challenges we face as an organisation, sector and society,” explained Hyde Group CEO Andy Hulme.
“That’s why we’re retrofitting of thousands of homes to meet 2050 zero carbon objectives; building energy-efficient homes; increasing biodiversity in our communities; looking at ways to end fuel poverty and supporting customers dealing with the cost-of-living and energy crises. We want customers to live in energy-efficient homes, that are safe and affordable, as well as being comfortable and enjoyable places to live.”
“We know we can’t tackle all these challenges by ourselves; it’s important for us to collaborate with others, both in and out of the housing sector, to find solutions to these major challenges. Having clear and robust ESG processes is an important tool in helping us find the right partners.
Andy added that good governance was the bedrock on which all Hyde’s sustainability activity was built, enabling it to make effective decisions and manage risks well.
“This also means being transparent and accountable to all our stakeholders, including customers and staff. Last year, we retained our G1/V2 ratings from the Regulator of Social Housing, showing we’re a strong, resilient, and financially viable business, and 3,744 customers were involved in shaping their services.
“And we continued to focus on becoming a diverse and inclusive organisation; ethnic minority staff make up 30% of our workforce and 11.7% of our senior leadership team; 44.% of our senior leaders are women.”
Our evolving Environmental, Social and Governance framework
“Telling a simple and clear story about the impact of social housing was a key driver behind establishing our ESG framework in 2021. It was really important for us to set meaningful 2030 targets, linked to our 2050 Strategic Plan, and to robustly measure ourselves against them.” Andy explained.
“There have been a lot of changes in our report this year, as we continue to evolve our processes and thinking, and we recognise we’ve still got much to do. We’ve got a real opportunity to improve things for our customers, colleagues, and wider society and believe we’re moving in the right direction.”
Visit the ESG area of our website to find out more about our progress against our performance metrics and to download the 2021-22 ESG report (PDF, 2MB).