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Modern Slavery Statement 2023

Modern slavery encompasses slavery, human trafficking, forced labour and domestic servitude. Traffickers and slave masters use whatever means they have at their disposal to coerce, deceive and force individuals into a life of abuse, servitude and inhumane treatment. Great Places is committed to eradicating modern slavery in all forms throughout our direct operations and our wider supply chain.

Who is Great Places?

Great Places Housing Group is a registered, not for profit, social housing provider working across 48 local authorities in the North of England providing rented homes, low cost home ownership opportunities, private management services and support services for people in need.

We have approximately 25,000 properties in our portfolio, and in 2022/23 achieved a turnover of over £126M excluding property sales. We employ approximately 850 colleagues and are a living wage employer with a strong commitment to supporting and developing our employees to achieve their potential.

Our Risk Areas

Within each of our directorates, an assessment has been undertaken to identify any high risk activities or functions where modern slavery and/or human trafficking are known to be more prevalent. This exercise identified the following risk areas:

  • Development of new homes – construction workers and supply chain, including sites managed under our in-house construction company Terra Nova Developments
  • Procurement of electronic devices and component parts
  • Procurement of repairs materials, parts, etc.
  • Delivery of a grounds maintenance service
  • Use of facilities management contractors
  • Tenants employed as sex workers or cannabis farm “gardeners”

Within each of these areas, we will liaise with our colleagues, contractors and supply chain partners to ensure that risks are managed effectively and that employment practices are in line with our expectations.

Our structure

The legal structure of Great Places Housing Group comprises the following companies and is overseen day to day by Chief Executive (Matthew Harrison) and 5 Executive Directors..

Great Places’ Board is currently made up of 9 Non-Executive Directors plus the Chief Executive and is chaired by Tony Davison, with a further 4 Non-Executive Directors making up the Cube Board.

The structure chart below outlines the legal relationships between the members of the Group.

Company Group relationships

What have we achieved in the past 12 months?

During 2022/23, we committed to deliver a number of actions in order to address the priority areas that we had identified. The information below summarises our progress against these actions:

Action identified Progress made in 2022/23
Continue to raise awareness of modern slavery risks across the business We have worked with the Slave Free Alliance to access a number of resources which have been shared with colleagues through a variety of articles and videos on our intranet and our training platform, The Study.
Re-procure a number of higher risk areas across facilities management and our supply chain i.e. tree maintenance, window cleaning, PPE supply A DPS has been established for Terra Nova, and the OSHA framework has also been launched during 2022/23 which are both considered higher risk. In addition, our gas servicing and maintenance contract has been reprocured.
Work with our repairs, asset management and compliance contractors to ensure we have appropriate assurance that modern slavery risks are being appropriately addressed in their supply chains Colleagues continue to work with contractors across all departments to support them in assessing any modern slavery risks within their supply chains – and this is an integral part of contractor selection processes through our procurement team.

 

What Are Our Future Actions For 2023/24

Over the next 12 months, we will:

  • Continue to raise awareness of modern slavery risks across the business by promoting this short video from the National Crime Agency, and by delivering training to our Board;
  • Re-procure a number of high risk contracts where modern slavery is potentially present in the supply chain; our development led innovation chain north (ICN) framework, repairs sub-contractors and various cleaning and laundry contracts;
  • Continue to work with sub-contractors to ensure we have appropriate assurance that modern slavery risks are being appropriately addressed in their supply chains

Conclusion

We are not aware of any modern slavery or human trafficking incidents have occurred within Great Places or our supply chain within 2022/23, but will continue to act vigilantly and in line with the Modern Slavery Act throughout 2023/24.

Matt signature 2023