Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report

Summary

We have a clear purpose at settle – to give residents a firm foundation on which to build their lives. To achieve this purpose, we have a clear plan made up of four strategic themes that we’re focused on delivering by 2030:

being relentlessly resident focussed;
being a responsible social business;
providing safe and warm homes;
and meeting housing needs.

Working with our partners and residents we improve neighbourhoods and life outcomes for residents by investing in both the quality of new and existing affordable homes and places. This Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report demonstrates how settle recognises our responsibility not only to our residents but also the wider community and the environment.

We understand that our operations have a significant impact on the world around us. Therefore, we strive to conduct our business in a manner that promotes positive environmental stewardship and fosters social inclusivity.

The themes in this report are aligned with six of the Sustainable Development Goals, which are the United Nation’s Blueprint and an ‘urgent call for action by all countries’ to collaboratively address key global challenges such as poverty, hunger, health, inequality and climate change by 2030.

We commit to reporting annually on our achievements using the Good Economy’s sector-wide Sustainability Reporting Standard.

Environmental

At settle we take our responsibility for the environment seriously. This is reflected in our Sustainability Plan, which outlines how creating sustainable neighbourhoods and sustainable business is fundamental to delivering our purpose. We will play our part in the national programme to decarbonise our economy, support residents in fuel poverty and invest in green spaces within our neighbourhoods. While we are closely aligned to Government sustainability targets, as a social purpose organisation we are committed to going beyond these and working in an environmentally sustainable way across all we do.

Tackling Climate Change

From our 2022 Group Carbon Audit, we know that 93% of organisational carbon emissions originate from our housing stock. With responsibility for over 10,000 homes, our strategy for building, retrofitting and maintenance will be key to managing these emissions. Our approach is “fabric first” and we have committed £3.2m over the next financial year to sustainability improvements. During 23/24 we spent more than £3.4m on energy efficiency and sustainability improvements.

In March 2023 we were awarded funding through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, as part of our Greener Herts partnership with B3Living, Dacorum Borough Council and Watford Community Housing. The funding will enable works to a total of around 1500 homes over a two-year programme, to bring them up to EPC C. We completed assessments to nearly 600 settle homes by the end of March, completed 443 measures in 198 homes and fully completed improvement works to 45 settle properties.

We look forward to completing our commitments during the year ahead, with several hundred more settle homes set to benefit from these improvement works, making them warmer and more comfortable to live in.

We continue to deliver sustainability and energy efficiency works to homes, supported by the SHDF grant award. A further round of SHDF funding (Wave 3) will be released this year and we plan to submit a bid for funding to further improve our homes. We continue to work with Warmfront to deliver additional energy saving measures, such as cavity wall and loft insulation via ECO4 (Energy Company Obligation) funding. Additionally, we are seeking to bid for further ECO4 and GBIS (Great British Insulation Scheme) funding with construction partners.

In 2023, we published a new sustainability plan outlining our goal to have our housing stock reach at least EPC C by 2030, and to become Net Zero Carbon as an organisation by 2050. It considers sustainability in our homes, green spaces, operations, supply chain, people and talent. The strategy was informed by consultation with our residents and we continue to engage our residents in sustainability via our Green Panel – a panel of settle residents interested in sustainability. The panel discusses sustainability topics that are important to them and holds us to account for our progress in achieving sustainability. Additionally, our internal Sustainability Forum invites colleagues to input and collaborate in our sustainability goals and activities.

Good data is key to understanding the Net Zero challenge, so we continue to monitor the emissions associated with our housing stock and organisational practices. We are now in the fourth year of undertaking the SHIFT (Sustainable Homes Index for Tomorrow) accreditation. We have again been awarded silver status in 2023. The analysis helps us to identify where we can continue to progress, and we now have a clear plan in place to achieve SHIFT Gold status by 2027.

Ecology and Resource Management

Our estates activity continues to invest in green spaces and biodiversity as part of our mission to preserve the environments we are responsible for, working closely in collaboration with our residents wherever possible.

Over the past year, we have continued to plant trees and shrubs improving both the green space quality and increasing biodiversity. We also continue to input into both the local and wider areas’ re-wilding projects and bee corridor initiatives; as an exciting example of this we are now in discussions with the Codicote rewilding group about a major initiative in that area. Going forward we look to continue this alongside our redevelopment and re generation teams, ensuring the green agenda remains a real deliverable for the group.

We continue to review both our grounds and general maintenance policies with a view to increasing biodiversity and the green agenda at every opportunity. As proud providers of social housing in the world’s first Garden City, we strive to uphold those same green objectives and values as originally set out.

We continue to look to further incorporate more efficient and greener technologies within our maintenance teams increasing the use of battery technology for our mowers, strimmers whilst also looking at current developments in greener/more environmentally friendly cleaning products for use by our cleaning teams.

Our teams continue to support both Giving Something Back Days and Neighbourhood Action Weeks and hope to expand our involvement with these community facing events, involving our partners, contractors, and residents at every opportunity.

We continue to build relationships with our waste partners to ensure that recycling and reuse become our preferred waste disposal routes and minimise our contribution to landfill at every opportunity.

In 2023, we achieved a Silver SHIFT Sustainability Award, based on the assessment of our work during the previous year. This demonstrates a business-wide commitment to monitoring our sustainability metrics and using them to generate ambitious science-based targets.

Social

As a well-run social business, our role at settle goes beyond being a landlord. Whilst delivering on our core purpose, to give residents a firm foundation on which to build their lives, we also re-invest surplus into achieving a wider social impact in the communities we serve.

We celebrated Green Week in June 2023, key highlights included:

The launch of our Sustainability Plan 2023-2025
Flower planting and fencing replacements on our neighbourhood action days in Royston
Publishing a webinar for residents, with updates on our Sustainability Plan
Welcoming students from Year 10 at the Priory School in Hitchin to our offices to hear about ways we are working to be more sustainable in our development of new homes.
Inviting residents to a pilot upcycling workshop for residents from the Westmill in Hitchin.
Events for colleagues, including a lunchtime session on how we’re continuing to embed sustainability across the business, setting up our own gardening club and a second-hand swap shop.

Affordability and Security

We provide homes at up to a 56% discount to local market rates across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and South Cambridgeshire and 81% of our homes are set at social rents. Rent prices increase with national inflation but remain well below the cap for a registered affordable housing provider. This model allows us to provide housing security and affordable living to over 10,000 households in an area where waiting lists and property prices are high.

Building Safety and Quality

As of April 2024, 100% of homes have an in-date, accredited gas safety check and are compliant with a Fire Risk Assessment, which is carried out as required every three years. Our planned maintenance work is underway; this year, we have spent £14m on improvements to doors, windows, boilers, kitchens, lifts, bathrooms, roofs and adaptations.

Resident Voice

The Big Door Knock is an opportunity to hear from residents and review our services. This is a quarterly engagement tool and during 2023/24, we received over 900 pieces of feedback. Our ‘voice of the resident panel’ acts as the bridge between residents, colleagues, and Board members, and helps us understand the impact our work has on people who live in settle homes. The panel’s role is to champion the voice of all settle residents by holding us to account on how we listen to and act on resident feedback. The panel also helps improve and shape settle services by commissioning and carrying out service reviews and scrutiny projects based on resident feedback trends. We share resident feedback, insight, stories, and case studies with colleagues at all levels across the organisation, including regular reports to our Board, who oversee our work.

We have completed our first full year of surveys against the Tenant Satisfaction Measures. One of the areas of feedback we have seen directly linking to the ESG area is the importance of the maintenance of communal areas. Dissatisfaction is higher than we would want to see, and as a result we have put in place a neighbourhood improvement plan.

Placemaking

Regeneration of neighbourhoods is an ongoing focus. As an example, we have submitted planning for regeneration of the Campfield Way, Highover Way and Icknield Way area in Letchworth. Work has continued with the RSG (Resident Steering Group) throughout the planning and consultation period.

Through our Neighbourhood Plans, we are also working with communities in our wider neighbourhoods via surveys, drop-ins and community fun days to learn about their priorities and engage with the public to co-create solutions.

Our neighbourhood action days are part of our commitment to investing in neighbourhoods and communities and creating places where residents are proud to live.

These days involve colleagues from teams across settle getting out into neighbourhoods to complete tasks that might include things like litter picking, tidying or painting in communal areas or perhaps planting new garden areas. We’re also delighted to be joined by residents and local partners at many of these action days.

Colleague Wellbeing

Annual Wellbeing benefits are available to all colleagues to support a variety of activities outside of work. Additionally, colleague wellbeing at work is promoted via our ‘Together We Care’ champions, who organise wellbeing-focused activities online and in the office throughout the year. In January, our ‘Wellbeing Week’ provides a variety of wellbeing workshops for colleagues to engage with, such as yoga and meditation. Mental health is prioritised at settle with reminders for all colleagues of the help available, for example our trained mental health first aiders.

Social purpose is at the heart of what we do, so colleagues are encouraged to take two paid Giving Something Back Days to volunteer in their community each year.

We were delighted to recently present our charity partner, stand-by-me, with a cheque for £3883.69 raised by settle colleagues over the last year. Each year settle colleagues vote for a charity partner supporting people living in neighbourhoods we work in. stand-by-me support bereaved children, young people, and their families in North Hertfordshire and Stevenage. The money has been raised through activities including raffles, lunches and a donation from settle for each annual engagement survey completed by colleagues. We are so pleased to know that this money will make such a difference and is enough to fund two therapeutic groupwork programmes, providing support to 24 children.

settle have also partnered with “Lifetime” who offer financial education and planning to support colleagues financial wellbeing. Lifetime have hosted a series of webinars on topics including pensions, financial planning and winter finances. They also provide colleagues access to a hub which gives them access to lots of articles, videos and other resources including financial plans and time with financial advisors.

Additionally, settle have introduced a colleague food pantry, to support in a time where budgets are being stretched. This gives colleagues access to basic food provisions should they not be able to afford them. This is run by colleagues for colleagues and is completely anonymous.

Supply Chain

Our Procurement Panel ensures that social and environmental value is factored into business procurement decisions. Currently, all tender documents require the provider to offer some contribution that would help settle to deliver on our social purpose strategy of reducing social isolation. Providers can make contributions by offering up time to carry out activities such as renovations of social spaces, donating items or making a financial contribution in the region of 0.5% of total contract value. In 2023/24, over £37,000 was generated for social purpose activities in this way.

Governance

settle is a Registered Charity under the Cooperative & Community Benefit Society Act 2014. We are a not-for-profit registered provider of social housing.

Structure and membership

settle’s group structure is set out in the Strategic Report, with membership detailed in The Report of the Board of Directors.