Our Approach to CR

Taylor Wimpey creates homes and communities in which people want to live, often regenerating the areas in which we build and contributing to the growth of local economies.

As a major housebuilder, we have a responsibility to build sustainable communities and to take social, environmental and economic factors into account in conducting our business. Given society and governments’ increasing focus on these issues, it also makes sound commercial sense for us to do so.

Taylor Wimpey plc’s corporate responsibility practices outline our approach to the global challenge of sustainable development. Our policies and practices help us to demonstrate high standards of governance, manage our business effectively, manage business risk and comply with current and future legislation.

Crucially, our corporate responsibility also helps us to build thriving communities that meet our customers’ current and future needs and to win competitive tenders that increasingly include sustainability criteria. We are proud to be included in the FTSE4Good and Dow Jones Sustainability Group indices.

Corporate responsibility management
Following the merger of George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow in July 2007, we set up a new Board-level Corporate Responsibility Committee. The Committee is made up of Independent Non Executive and Executive Directors and is chaired by Non Executive Director Katherine Innes Ker.

The committee meets at least three times per year and is responsible for recommending the Company’s corporate responsibility strategy, policies, reporting and performance monitoring to the plc Board. The committee’s remit includes ensuring that CR strategy and activity are adequately resourced, have appropriate standing within the Company and are aligned to the needs of the business. We regard corporate responsibility as an integral part of good governance.

Our key areas of focus in terms of corporate responsibility are the homes and communities that we build for our customers and the way that we operate as a business.

Sustainability Working Group
We have a Sustainability Working Group in the UK. This group is made up of Directors from business development, land and planning, commercial, design, production and procurement as well as a full time Sustainability Advisor.

Meeting regularly, the group keeps the business informed about emerging legislation, regulation and market developments relating to sustainability and acts as a conduit and advisor to collect and disseminate best practice.

The group is tasked with identifying key issues to address and will advise on and establish programmes to deliver sustainability objectives. This involves engaging with government and key stakeholders, identifying areas where we can deliver enhanced business performance and ensuring that Taylor Wimpey maintains competitive advantage through awareness of and response to sustainability issues.

The group is co-ordinating our approach to delivering homes that can satisfy the various levels of the Code for Sustainable Homes, starting with level three where it is required by our development partners. It is also undertaking research into tackling higher code levels, for example in response to the Government’s Carbon Challenge. This research is vital in enabling us to map a realistic route to delivering zero carbon homes from 2016.

Governance and ethics
Corporate governance remains a top priority for Taylor Wimpey, as it was for both Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey. Our new plc Board includes three Non Executive Directors from each legacy business as well as a Chairman. The Board considers that we have continued to comply with all the provisions of the Combined Code on Corporate Governance during 2007.

Following the merger, the Board moved swiftly to adopt the governance, policies and procedures. These will be regularly reviewed by the Board to ensure that they meet the requirements of the Group and each individual business.

Since the merger, we have begun a process of reassessing our Company’s core values and approach to ethics.

Integration
The integration of our UK and North American businesses has progressed well since the merger. George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow were well matched in terms of sustainability performance, as can be seen from the Next Generation benchmark of UK house builders, where the difference between our two legacy businesses was just one percentage point. As two of only three companies to achieve over 70% in the benchmark, we are in an extremely strong position in terms of sharing past experience and integrating best practice for the future.

In 2007, we focused on analysing our legacy businesses’ approach in all business areas, identifying best practice and deciding on how best to move forward. We are now updating our UK and North American policies, procedures and systems and, once this process is complete, we will focus on implementing and embedding these new approaches.

Risk management
One of the most compelling aspects of the business case for corporate responsibility is that it helps us to reduce business risk by identifying a wide range of issues to address. The Corporate Responsibility Committee is tasked with highlighting significant social, environmental and ethical risks and opportunities for the attention of the Board.

During 2007, we continued with the historical risk management processes of our legacy businesses. We also analysed the existing systems and methodologies with a view to integrating best practice and developing a risk management framework that fits our new business size and model. We will introduce this framework in 2008.

Stakeholder engagement
As part of our stakeholder engagement, we work closely with industry bodies such as the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and participate in consultations on industry developments such as the Code for Sustainable Homes, the Calcutt Review and planning issues.

We have also acted as a research partner with the National Trust, Leeds Metropolitan University and Redrow Homes on our Stamford Brook development. We are keen to expand our links with academic schools and other organisations working within the environmental sector.