Hyde has launched a new environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework that will underpin its social purpose, funding strategy, and approach to partnerships.
The framework – set against the social housing sector’s Sustainability Reporting Standard, of which Hyde is an early adopter – will help the 50,000-home housing association measure and manage its ESG impact, with transparency and accountability at the forefront.
Hyde’s investment in an advanced ESG Framework follows on from the 2018 launch of the group’s annual The value of a social tenancy report.
The report showed that good quality, well-managed social tenancies not only offer people a secure roof over their heads, but save the taxpayer millions of pounds in areas including education, policing, and local authority expenditure.
Peter Denton, chief executive officer at Hyde, explained: “We are committed to using ESG to demonstrate how we are meeting the demands of our customers and communities, while pushing ourselves to deliver more.
“We see ESG as much more than a set of metrics, or a reporting framework.
“It is a language that helps us communicate outcomes and the positive impact we have on society, the economy and the environment, so we can demonstrate what we stand for, and attract the right kind of investment.”
A crucial area that Hyde’s ESG impact reporting will support is the way it secures the public and private capital it requires to meet its core purpose and its ambitions, including addressing the green agenda, delivering the right homes in the right places and forging strong partnerships.
Hyde says it is committed to investing in sustainable housing, which not only helps to address climate change, but also supports the wellbeing of customers – both financial, through the reduction in fuel poverty and utility bills, and personal, in terms of health and quality of life.
Denton added: “As a sector, we all know we are facing a monumental challenge to create the financial capacity required to meet all of our objectives – which include a major investment in our existing homes to meet the building safety and green agendas, as well as our responsibility to deliver new, sustainable, and secure affordable homes to the right people, in the right places.
“The scale of the challenge means this isn’t something any of us as housing associations can do alone – there has to be collaboration.
“And ESG provides a framework through which we, and our partnerships, can grow and be held to account.”
Hyde’s innovative approach includes the creation of an ‘ESG dashboard’, reporting eight core measures for each segment of environmental, social and governance, with annual outputs that will drive performance and outcomes.
Each measure on the ESG Dashboard is a subset of the full ESG framework and all the measures on the framework will have accountable ‘owners’ within Hyde.
The housing association – which operates across London, the south of England, and the Midlands and is a member of the G15 group of London associations – has designed the approach in partnership with Sonnet Advisory & Impact CIC.
The Hyde framework has been created to reflect the group’s social business model. It therefore goes beyond frameworks from the general corporate market, which may not fully explain the true value housing associations are delivering.
Along with demonstrating Hyde’s purpose and performance to responsible investors, the framework will also set out Hyde’s commitment to collaborating with housing providers and other partners to deliver a shared purpose.
Denton continued: “At its best, ESG reporting can help us fulfil our social purpose and the ambitions of our strategic plan: to deliver more of the right homes in the right places, ensure all our homes are safe, decent, and energy-efficient, and to support a high-performing and customer-driven culture.”
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