Welcome to Community Housing's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) webpage.

As a local Housing Provider we have a strong social purpose and responsibilities to our customers, community, work colleagues and stakeholders. We also recognise the role we must play in looking after the environment and the movement to EPC band C by 2030 and net zero by 2050. Good Governance is key to the performance and control of the business and the achievement of our social purpose and environmental objectives.

We have adopted the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing (SRSSH) as amended by version 1.2 in May 2022 which contains 48 criteria some of which are quantitative, and some are qualitative, covering 12 themes of ESG. These themes and criteria are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) and complement the 3 threads of our Corporate Plan 2021-24:

• Building Better Lives
• Building a Stronger Business
• Building Thriving Communities

During 2022-23, as part of our midterm review of our Corporate Plan 2021-24, we have developed a cost of living addendum to our Corporate Plan which recognises the pressures on our customers, colleagues and our finances with the rent increase restriction and the rising cost due to inflation of maintenance and investment in stock. Therefore 4 priorities have been added:

1. Looking after our customers
2. Looking after our colleagues
3. Making sure that the company remains viable
4. Looking after our homes.

You can view the standard here

We are committed to embedding ESG into the long-term stewardship of our business and the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing was an obvious choice, as it provides a simple reporting standard and enables us to compare ourselves with similar organisations. It also provides an opportunity to discuss progress with others and learn best practice.

In compliance with the standard we have just published our second ESG report covering the year ending March 2023 which can be viewed by clicking the button below this text. If you wish to have a copy of the excel spreadsheet which accompanies the report please e-mail marketing@communityhousing.co.uk.

This year's report continues to build the baseline position of where we are in relation to ESG. It shows we have strong foundations, particularly in relation to Governance and Social themes which are highlighted in the report and we are looking to build on these through the future years of our Corporate Plan and through continuous improvement. It also highlights areas where we are at the start of our journey particularly around measurement of some of the environmental criteria. It highlights our responses to the cost of living crisis and the work we have done to assist our customers during what is a difficult period as well as the Governance changes we have made to safeguard the businesses financial position whilst increasing our customer focus and involvement.

Our ESG Working Group are developing our ESG strategy and action plan using this years report as a baseline. It will take into account the targets within the Corporate plan including our cost of living addendum, our new strategies for our people, and our customers and will be developed in tandem with the Environmental Strategy which is currently being written. We recognise the challenges of achieving a minimum EPC rating of C by 2030 and net zero by 2050 particularly in the current climate with the cost of living crisis and recession creating pressure on our customers, colleagues and the financial plan.

A revised Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing, version 2.0, has just been issued and we will be measuring the organisation against this new standard in next years report for 2023-24.

We are in the early stages of our ESG journey and we will involve the Board, Executive Management and Leadership Teams, all our colleagues, customers and other stakeholders to embed it into our business.