Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement

Introduction

Modern slavery has no place in our business or supply chains and we take a zero tolerance approach to it. We are strongly committed to playing our part in eradicating modern slavery. This statement refers to the financial year ending September 2024. It sets out the steps Bruntwood has taken, and is proposing to take to address the risk of slavery and human trafficking taking place in its business and within its supply chain.

About Bruntwood

Bruntwood is one of the UK’s leading property providers committed to creating thriving cities surrounded by a network of thriving town centres for over 47 years.

Bruntwood operates a £260m portfolio of workspace, located in Manchester city centre, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Leeds and Liverpool, alongside a £100m portfolio of town centre regeneration projects with Trafford and Bury Councils. Bruntwood provides everything from coworking space and meeting rooms, to serviced, managed and leased offices along retail and leisure space. The business also owns and manages independent shopping emporium, Afflecks in Manchester City Centre.

Since 2018, Bruntwood has been a shareholder in Bruntwood SciTech - the UK’s leading developer of city-wide innovation ecosystems and specialist environments helping companies - particularly those in the science and technology sectors - to form, scale and grow. Valued at £1.5bn, Bruntwood SciTech has a portfolio of 4.8m sq ft across nine campus locations and 31 city centre innovation hubs in Manchester, Cheshire, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Cambridge and Glasgow. It has plans to create a £5bn portfolio by 2032 and has a 3.6m sq ft secured development pipeline.

Bruntwood also actively collaborates with ambitious and ground-breaking arts and cultural organisations, in addition to supporting environmental, civic and charitable initiatives through the Oglesby Charitable Trust.

The business in-sources as many functions as it can and in particular those with a customer facing element. This is an important part of the business model and drives greater insight, better delivery and more targeted support for our customers. The delivery of these areas by in-house teams supports a flexible and personal service offer, which in turn has led to customer retention rates that vastly exceed the national average.

At the end of the year the group and joint venture employed 1140 people to provide management services and support to all Bruntwood companies. Over 170 of these people have been with the business for more than 10 years.

Our Purpose

At the heart of everything our colleagues do is our core purpose – Creating Thriving Cities. This purpose is underpinned by our values. Our commitment to help eradicate modern slavery aligns closely with our values. The company has a low risk of slavery or human trafficking among our workforce. Our business is within the UK and accordingly our geographic risk of slavery and human trafficking is considered to be low.

Our Suppliers

We have over 2,300 direct suppliers providing goods and services to the Bruntwood Group. These suppliers range in size from small owner managed businesses to larger regional and national companies.

We are committed to conducting its business in a lawful and ethical manner. In particular, we will not tolerate slavery and/or human trafficking. Bruntwood expects its suppliers, contractors and service providers (“Suppliers”) to also support the elimination of such practices. Our values reflect our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and our systems and controls ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains. We expect all of our Suppliers to comply with our policy.

Bruntwood expects all of its suppliers, contractors and service providers to act ethically, with integrity and to have in place effective systems and controls to combat modern slavery place anywhere in their own business or in any of their supply chains. Before a new supplier, contractor or service provider is approved, appropriate due diligence on the supplier will be carried out. As part of the process, the supplier’s policies will be reviewed or they will be required to adhere to our policy if they do not have their own policy in this area. New suppliers will only be approved once they have completed this due diligence process.

Bruntwood will view any breaches by a supplier of these practices or the supplier’s contractual commitments (if any) very seriously. Breaches may result in Bruntwood requiring an immediate remediation plan. We may also terminate our relationship with any supplier that is in breach or fails to cooperate with remedying a breach. We will continue to monitor the safeguards listed above and consider implementation of further measures if required. We know that the risk of Modern Slavery is dynamic and ever-evolving. For this reason, we intend to regularly review our approach to assessing and mitigating the risk of Modern Slavery.

Reviewed September 2024