Our suppliers
We rely on our suppliers, contractors and other supply partners to deliver our projects and run our day-to-day operations, and they play a major part in establishing our reputation. To be the partner of choice, we need to act with fairness, honesty and integrity at all times.
The challenge
We want to help our suppliers to maintain their economic viability and attract those with the skills they need for their business. Our suppliers need to be aligned to our way of working but we need to recognise that they are unique, each with different resources and pressures on their business.
Supplier relations
Whether they are cleaning businesses, waste management contractors or major construction companies, we have a set of guidelines and behaviours we expect from all the supply partners we work with. They need to have values, philosophies and cultures that complement our own, and must operate in a similarly sustainable and ethical manner.
In fact, all contracts require them to comply with our sustainable development targets and objectives. Our expectations are also integrated into Sentinel, an online system for assessing compliance with a number of legal and regulatory standards, ranging from procurement and working hours to forced labour, bribery and corruption. We are not complacent about the ability of our suppliers to meet our exacting standards so during 2010, we will continue to review the CR policies of the top 20 suppliers within our London and Retail Property Management teams, as measured by contract value, and ensure they remain compliant with the CR criteria in the Sentinel system. These top suppliers spent £530 million with us last year, more than half of which came through Bovis Land Lease, and between them, these 20 suppliers make up 55% of our total supplier spend.
In turn, we believe that by working closely with them and keeping the lines of communication open, we can also help to ensure their businesses benefit from the relationship too. To that end, we hold regular meetings with our supply chain partners, from day-to-day operational meetings to collaborative discussions and debates. In both our London and Retail Portfolios, we have regular direct contact with all our principal trade contractors and aim to discuss key issues on a quarterly basis.
Closing the skills gap
With an eye to the future, we also believe in playing a role in responding to skills gaps and developing an experienced workforce in our industry, so that our supply chain continues to have the expertise needed to do business with us. For example, we actively support work experience, mentoring schemes and the sponsorship of students who are keen to pursue careers in our sector, such as the scholarships and work placements available to planning students at University College London and Reading University.
Case study
Planning ahead
The property industry faces a predicted shortfall in trained planners, but as part of our approach to community engagement, we have made provision to support education and employment in our industry. To help to address this potential skills gap, we have established a scholarship fund for postgraduate students at University College London's (UCL's) Bartlett School of Planning.
To assist with their training, awards of £5,000 have been made to four students taking MSc planning courses at UCL. As part of their training, they will also undertake work placements, either with our planning consultants or a partner organisation, at the end of their course.
The recipients of the 2009/10 Land Securities scholarship, which falls within our sponsorship criteria for supporting education and employment skills, were:
- June Taylor – MSc Urban Regeneration
- Sarah Morris – MSc European Property Development and Planning
- Miriam Hunt – MSc Urban Regeneration
- Alex Gandy – MSc Spatial Planning.
Case studies
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Land Securities suppliers