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CR&S 2010
Our approach
Stockland UK
UK Approach
In August 2009, we announced our
intention to embark on an orderly sale of
assets in the United Kingdom (UK) over
a timeframe of two to three years. As a
result, the UK business unit’s strategy
in relation to CR&S has been amended
to reflect the new circumstances of the
business. This has particularly affected
our actions in relation to the energy
initiatives being carried out across
the portfolio and collection of carbon
footprint data.
Following the announcement of our
exit from the UK market, we made the
decision to cease collecting carbon data
for the UK portfolio except when required
for compliance purposes. This data had
originally been collected with a view to
helping us measure the improvement
in performance of our portfolio over the
long term. With the UK business now
having a finite lifespan we believe that the
value of collecting and analysing this data
would not be offset sufficiently by any
short-term benefits.
We have collated data for our Carbon
Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy
Efficiency Scheme obligations for the
2008 year and will be finalising our
information disclosure reporting in time
for the 30 September 2010 deadline.
We continue to comply with Energy
Performance Certificates legislation
across our portfolio.
Over the past 12 months the UK
business has placed a strong focus
on the continued improvement of
health, safety and environment
across its portfolio.
The business has been working to improve
the safety and security of both employees
and customers.
Business Climate
Market conditions in the UK remain
difficult. Capital values have recovered
somewhat but the economic downturn is
still putting downward pressure on rents.
It is widely believed, however, that capital
values have reached a floor and modest
growth is expected over the next couple
of years.
Employees in the UK were disappointed
by the announcement in August 2009
that we would embark on an orderly
sale of assets in the UK. As a result, our
engagement score dropped significantly
in our employee survey from 79 per cent
to 44 per cent favourable. UK employees
have also been affected by redundancies
which were necessary to right-size the
business as workload decreased with the
sale of assets and loss of management
contracts. We have, however, continued
to invest in learning and development
opportunities for UK employees and
in FY10 we provided an average of
2.25 training days per person.
Our employees remained committed
to giving and volunteering initiatives and
raised money to fund two events in the
year with Starlight Children’s Foundation,
one of which was the children’s
Christmas Party at St Mary’s hospital
in Paddington, London.
We expect retention to be a key challenge
in FY11. Although the UK job market
is generally poor, given time, many
employees will be able to find work
elsewhere. It is likely that certain roles
will need to be covered by fixed-term
contractors in the future.
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Stockland Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report June 2010