Health and Safety

The Board is committed to the continuous improvement of health and safety performance and during the year work has continued on the further development of our Group Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) introduced three years ago. The OHSMS is designed for ease of use to ensure that all staff understand their responsibilities for the management of health and safety at every stage of the development process from scheme viability, site purchase, tender and construction through to individual purchaser sales and after sales service.

The OHSMS incorporates as a technical reference the CITB’s GE 700 Site Safety Notes, which are regularly updated to reflect all statutory regulations, approved codes of practice, HSE guidance and British and European Standards and directives. GE 700 is also the standard reference for site management health and safety training throughout the industry.

The investment made in the development of our occupational health and safety management systems has led to a sustained and measurable improvement in the safety standards achieved on our sites. For the third year running the average safety standard ratings achieved by the Group as measured by an independent site safety inspection service undertaken by the NHBC have been ahead of the average ratings of all other national housebuilders using the service. The incident rate on our sites in the year ended 30th June 2007, including both notifiable and reportable incidents, was below 600 per 100,000 employees (including subcontractors) and we have an ongoing objective to improve on this performance in the year ahead.