LSL Property Services : Living Responsible Report

LSL Living Responsibly Report

Published April 2024

Living Responsibly Report

About our reporting

This report provides a summary of LSL's sustainability ambition and Environmental, Social and Governance reporting data for the year to 31 December 2023. In addition, where relevant it refers to activities and events before or after this period.

Emissions data reporting is 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023.

All references to our Annual Report and

Accounts are to our 2023 financial year.

Find out more

Our climate-related financial disclosures in response to reporting requirements are included in the Non-Financial and Sustainability Information Statement in our Annual Report and Accounts 2023.

External support and assurance

During 2023 and in Q1 2024 we have received third party support with our climate-related reporting. In addition to this we have worked with Energise - net zero consultant and sustainability experts, to support improvements in our carbon accounting and Scope 3 disclosures.

Contents

7

15

18

24

APPENDICES 28

2

Living Responsibly Report

About us

2023 has been significant for the Group as outlined in our Annual Report and Accounts. We have restructured our Financial Services Network and created a new Estate Agency Franchising Division. Both are now focused on business-to-business services.

Our Living Responsibly programme started in 2021 and continues to be a strategic priority for our business. The programme, and this report, reflects our Group ESG and sustainability strategy. We continue to work to embed Living Responsibly in our Divisional structures. Our Group CEO meets regularly with forum chairs to listen and support their priorities.

Our Financial Services Division have an ESG lead who achieved a "Change Maker" award for their contributions in 2022 and this was renewed in 2023. See the environmental update for more information. Our Surveying & Valuation Division has an ESG steering committee to support their activity and collaboration with Group Forums. Our Estate Agency Franchising Division's Managing Director is the Group's Executive Sponsor for our environmental programme.

This report covers 2023 and the period leading to its publication and includes our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reporting for the period from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023. In our Annual Report and Accounts 2023 we reported actual emission data for the year. In this report we report our new baseline data for our emission reduction targets.

As a Group we strive to be more than the sum of our parts and we believe that what we can achieve collectively will have longer lasting benefits. Like many other organisations on their sustainability journey, data has been a significant focus for us in 2023.

We have made improvements in our data collection, interpretation and reporting of diversity as well as investing in improvements to our environmental reporting. These changes will support us to ensure the comparability and integrity of our future reporting. As part of our commitment to best practice we have used the Global Reporting Initiative to inform the KPIs and data we include in this report.

Financial Services

One of the UK's

largest mortgage and insurance networks

Surveying & Valuation

One of the UK's

largest surveying and valuation businesses

Estate Agency

Franchising

One of the UK's largest

providers of estate

agency franchise

services

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Living Responsibly Report

Our 2023 progress​

We shared commitments across our 5 priorities in the Living Responsibly Report published in April 2023.

Here​ are some highlights of our progress. Further information relating to these highlights is contained in the rest of the report:​

​

​

Increasing the diversity of our Board and our workforce

33% increase in the proportion of our people who are ethnic minority

17% new colleagues are ethnic minority​

​

​

Building an inclusive culture where colleagues are supported to thrive

3 colleague affinity groups launched

33% increase in colleague diversity data disclosure

77% colleague survey response rate​

Supporting colleagues to connect with our communities

4 Group-wide community initiatives​ embedded

£48k charitable giving​

Minimising our environmental footprint

Scope 3

emissions calculated for​ the first time​

​

300% increase in proportion of EV and Hybrid in our fleet compared to 2021​

​

Ensuring excellent governance

Climate Risk

working Group established

​

Delivered

climate- related reporting

improvements​

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Living Responsibly Report

Foreword

I'm delighted to introduce our Living Responsibly

Our Living Responsibly programme

wide ranging and sets out the work we have in train to make LSL an inclusive, collaborative and engaging place in

which to work and to ensure we have a positive impact on the communities we serve.

There's much we still have to do.

However we have made considerable progress and I can only emphasise the personal commitment of myself and all

Board members to making sure Responsibly is embedded in

we do.

I'm grateful for the hard work and commitment of all those colleagues who volunteer their time to support our various forums and working groups and everyone at LSL for their support in this.

I hope this reports helps demonstrate that Living Responsibly sits at the very heart of LSL.

David Stewart

Group Chief Executive Officer

In a world where sustainability and responsible business practices are more important than ever I continue to be delighted with the progress we're making with our Environmental, Social and Governance work.

For me Living Responsibility isn't a box to tick - it's a fundamental part of who we are and how we do business. One of the areas we've seen great strides is in data collection

and analysis. This has helped us gain valuable insight

into our people and their engagement which helps us to make things work better for them. Along side this we can set meaningful targets, track progress and make informed decisions for the years to come.

Additionally, our focus on the Environment is a top priority. We've made improvements in this area at a Group level this year - calculating for the first time our Scope 3 emissions and improving our climate-related reporting. We know that numbers is only the start, but having these will enable us to set targets and track progress with greater confidence.

I'm on a mission to make LSL a better place to work for our colleagues

• people are our greatest asset. I'm committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, have opportunities for growth and development and have their voice heard. Colleagues across the business and our forums have worked hard this year to support a positive workplace culture, and you'll see examples of this work in the report.

Debra Gardner

Chief People Officer

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Living Responsibly Report

Our Group sustainability strategy

Our People

We will become a better

place to work

People are our greatest asset and central to securing our sustainability into the future.

Our targets:

• Achieve People Insight Outstanding Workplace award by 2026
• Achieve bronze accreditation for Better Health at Work award
• Senior Management Team reflects the gender and ethnicity balance of our workforce by 2027
• Double the ethnic minority proportion of our workforce by
  2032

Our Community

We will support

colleague initiatives &

give back

We want to have a positive and lasting impact on the communities we work in.

Our targets:

• Create more opportunities for colleagues to volunteer for charities Review Give As You Earn opportunities for colleagues

Continue to evolve and embed Group-wide community campaigns which are led by our Communities Forum

Our Environment

We will reduce our

environmental impact

This is our responsibility, and our stakeholders are keen for us to play our part.

Our targets:

• Create net zero 2040 plan for emissions in our direct control
  Create full climate transition plan Further improve climate- related risks and opportunities management

Our Governance

We will keep improving

our governance

It's the right thing to continue to improve how we work.

Our targets:

• Develop a supply chain governance framework
  Further improve the Group's climate-related reporting

Underpinned by our culture: Having the right people, doing the right things, in the right way.

Guided by stakeholders - Colleagues, Customers, Shareholders and Regulators.

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Living Responsibly Report

PEOPLE

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Living Responsibly Report

Our People

We will become a better place to work

The strategic changes that took place in 2023 have changed the size and composition of our workforce. Our 2023 colleague survey took place in October after these organisational changes were completed. Many of our homebased colleagues are surveyors and with the business changes in the year, these form a higher proportion of the workforce. The impact of the changes on our workforce is highlighted below.

Our People in 2023

Our People in 2024

Debra

"Our People strategy is our commitment to nurture, empower and invest in our people.

3,880

Colleagues

54%

Female

6%

Ethnic minority

6%

Disability or long term health condition

27%

Homebased

1,724

46%

8%

17% 54%

We will do this through fostering a culture of inclusion, providing opportunities for growth and development, engaging through recognition and supporting colleague wellbeing.

Our colleagues are our greatest asset and when we prioritise them we not only drive success but cultivate a culture of innovation

and growth."

Debra Gardner

Chief People Officer

This data provides an overview, for more detailed workforce data please see the appendices.

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Living Responsibly Report

Our People Strategy

Last year we created our People Strategy to align our business priorities with our people. We decided to run our colleague survey in October to best capture the experience of current

Our People

We are on a journey to improve the diversity of our workforce. You can see our data compared to the UK working age population here:

colleagues. ​

We were encouraged that despite the significant changes colleagues have experienced as a result of the restructure, we achieved a good overall response rate (77%). In 2022 our response rate was 61%, we don't have a comparable data point for the engagement score.

We are committed to maintaining our good response rate and achieve 85% colleague engagement which would earn us the People Insight "Outstanding Workplace award". We know that to do this we need to build our colleagues' confidence that we are actively building a better place to work.

41% of colleagues believed action would be taken because of their feedback - our people strategy will support us to improve this.

UK working age population composition

81% White

10% Asian or Asian British

4% Black, Black British, Caribbean or African

2% Mixed or multiple ethnic groups

2% Other ethnic group

Age Distribution

Our People

population composition

92%

5%

1%

1%

1%

Survey feedback:​

On our journey to being a better place to work, understanding and improving our data is a useful indicator of progress.

73%

Colleague engagement

77%

Responses

Response Favourability

Engagement	73%	20%	7%
Leadership	66%	21%	13%
Reward	62%	22%	17%
Autonomy	72%	15%	13%
Enablement	73%	14%	13%

41%

Belief in action

Purpose

80%

Postive

Neutral

Negative

14%

6%

65+	3%
55 - 64	19%
45 - 54	23%
35 - 44	25%
25 - 34	24%
24 and over	6%

Senior Management Team

5% Ethinic Minority

(8% workforce)

33% Female

(46% workforce)

UK population data as reported in 2021 UK census

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Living Responsibly Report

Talent and Reward

Reward is an area of focus for our People Strategy. We are committed to becoming a better place to work and this includes improving our reward and recognition strategy. ​

We delivered some positive changes in 2023 including working to make sure all colleagues are paid a Real Living Wage and calculating an estimated Group-wide ethnicity pay gap. Our diversity data collection takes place annually through our anonymous colleague survey. Like many other companies we are on a journey to accurately calculating ethnicity pay gaps for our workforce.​

We reviewed our current pay gap using colleague survey and average salary data for our workforce. In 2023 the pay gap was 12% (in favour of white colleagues) for which the main driver is the increased ethnic diversity in lower graded roles. We are committed to continuing to improve our data collection and have, as part of Change the Race Ratio, committed to publishing our ethnicity pay gap data in the next year. We continue to publish our gender pay gap data at a subsidiary level for qualifying companies, but plan to review Group-wide gaps in 2024.

We​ are looking forward to engaging with the Real Living Wage Foundation in 2024 to gain accreditation as a Living Wage Employer. In the meantime we are maintaining the standard, and have built this into our 2024 pay review principles. ​

We continue to review our benefits package, which now includes the opportunity for colleagues to take out a technology loan. In addition to this, following feedback from colleagues, during 2024 we are reviewing holiday and long service provisions.

In 2024 we launched an internal careers page to support us in retaining and sharing talent across the Group.

12%

Estimated ethnicity pay gap

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