Having carried out stock surveys across 85.7% of our stock, we can now have real confidence in our data. What that means for customers (and investors) is that there will be no shocks or surprises on our route to net zero. The data you see in the table below is actual data which is audited by SHIFT.  

Our modelled data of all Karbon Homes only stock shows that 78.2% of Karbon's homes were rated EPC C or above at 31 March 2025. The figure for Karbon Group stock was 77.9%.

Within Karbon Homes, we continued to see an increase in the number of EPC A rated homes at 240 (44%) against the previous year 100 (18%). The remaining 309 units achieved EPC High B with 160 units (28.1%) and EPC B with 149 (28.4%) compared to the previous year’s EPC B of 516 units (82%). 

One of the reasons for this is that we are building more homes directly through what we call ‘land-led’ developments than through acquiring section 106 homes – affordable homes on a private development site.  This allows us to push for higher energy efficiency standards on our own developments.  

Our recently completed development at Seaview Walk in Murton, County Durham is an example our preferred approach to new builds, with all 49 homes achieving an EPC A rating, making them sustainable, energy efficient and cheaper for customers to run. We took a fabric first approach, maximising the environmental performance of the materials that make up the building fabric, as well as installing solar panels to generate a renewable energy supply. 

The 24/25 results above are based on actual data for Karbon Homes stock and have been audited through our annual SHIFT assessment process. 

We use our planned investment budget to maintain our homes to the highest standard while also improving their energy efficiency. Last financial year, we spent £17.5m of our £32.4m planned investment budget on energy efficiency related activities and upgrades.  

*Bill saving based on average modelled savings across Karbon stock  

This work is supported by £586,275, through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) granted to deliver works between 2023-25. SHDF helps us to focus on the homes that don't meet EPC C. We’ve used the funding to deliver efficiency measures such as insulation, low carbon heating and renewable energy sources. Our SHDF-based work helped us to deliver the following improvements in 24/25.

*Carbon and bill savings have been calculated using Portfolio energy modelling software. Data sets to calculate average savings are as follows:  

• Carbon saving calculated using BEIS 2017 conversion factors  

• Present day bill savings use the April 2023 price cap where applicable. Where not applicable, they use the most recent value in the SAP database, or SAP 10 where none is available.    

Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions per home 

If unable to report emissions data, please state when the housing provider is expected to be able to do so. 

How is the housing provider mitigating these risks? 

Our Environmental Strategic Plan considers flooding and overheating as part of our approach to climate resilience. SHIFT carries out an independent assessment of our flood risk data and its latest analysis shows that 95.28% of our homes are classified as being at ‘low risk of flooding’. SHIFT’s analysis also tells us that 98.6% of homes are estimated to be at low risk of overheating. 

We commit to our homes and operations being resilient to changes in our climate by ensuring that:   

• all new homes are built in low flood risk areas where possible, or with adequate mitigation measures in areas of flood risk 
• all new homes address overheating risk factors in line with best practice guidance to meet current regulations 
• new build designs consider adaptation measures such as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS), insulation, building fabric and orientation 
• we continue to use our Geographical Information System (GIS) to assess flood and overheating risk of our homes by combining our property portfolio with available flood risk and overheating data 
• we undertake future flood risk assessments at least every three years
• we devise a flood risk management approach for homes at medium or high risk   
• we devise an overheating risk management approach for homes including households at medium or high-risk
• with increased likelihood and impact of severe weather events, business continuity plans include appropriate responses to these.  

If yes, please describe with reference to targets in this area. 

If no, are you planning on producing one in the next 12 months? 

Our targets for biodiversity net gain are outlined in our Environmental Strategic Plan which challenges us to meet the following measures of success: 

- All Karbon owned land and vegetation types categorised and GIS mapped  

• Increased biodiversity value of existing land in line with 10% biodiversity net gain target:  
• 6.7 tonnes per hectare by 2030  
• 8.7 tonnes per hectare by 2035  
• 11.9 tonnes per hectare by 2043 

- Biodiversity net gain on new build sites in accordance with legislation

- Increased neighbourhood customer satisfaction 

Research suggests that a target of 11.9 tonnes/ha should be set for housing associations, which is in line with the target of 10% biodiversity net gain for England. 

If so, how does the housing provider target and measure performance? 

We have an in-house repairs and maintenance team which is employed and managed by Karbon. This gives us more control over reducing pollutants related to existing stock and allows us to significantly reduce fuel consumption. Earlier this year, we procured three new materials suppliers: Wolseley, CEF and Jewson.

The move to these suppliers has given our trades operatives access to a greater number of branches for material supplies across our footprint – this has increased from 21 to 55 branches. Now our operatives can more easily order and collect materials on the go which, as well as making them more efficient, has a significant impact on carbon emissions from vehicles due to reduced travel.

If so, how does the housing provider target and measure performance? 

Responsibly sourced materials account for 63.3% of those used by our property services team in everyday repairs and maintenance.  

In our tenders, we ask that all timber materials are supplied with a Chain of Custody Certificate confirming responsible sourcing with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or a Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) accreditation. Non-timber materials must be supplied with ISO14001 or BES6001 (responsible sourcing of construction products) certificates of accreditation.  

If so, how does the housing provider target and measure performance? 

At our depots, we have developed 10 different waste streams so that our colleagues can effectively segregate the waste which they bring back from jobs. Effective segregation increases our ability to divert waste from landfill, increases re-use, and reduces travel to and from waste collection sites.

When we refurbish our homes, we aim to recycle or reuse wherever possible. In 2024/25 97.55% of waste from our in-house repairs and maintenance team and major homes maintenance contractors is diverted from landfill. For our in-house team only, 98.02% is diverted from landfill.

If so, how does the housing provider target and measure performance? 

We set targets for water usage both in our offices and our homes. SHIFT’s water efficiency calculator analyses the water efficiency measures we have installed in our homes to estimate water consumption across our stock as 129.74 litres per person per day. This puts us in line with SHIFT’s recommendation of 130 litres per person by 2030. Water usage in our offices and depots was estimated to be 1.684 m3 total usage, which is 1.84m3 per employee. 

1) Rent compared to median private rental sector (PRS) rent across the relevant local authority 

2) Rent compared to the relevant Local Housing Allowance (LHA)

Our general needs rents are on average 66.8% of market rate in the private rented sector (PRS). 

Please note: The ‘Average Karbon weekly rent’ figure is based on our general needs homes (for properties under direct Karbon ownership). General needs homes are subject to social rent. It represents the classic definition of social housing available for rent at target rents, based on the Rent Influencing Regime Guidance. Sample sizes in the private rented sector were often small so can lead to varied results. The LHA average incorporates all categories (A to E). 

Please refer to the following definitions when considering the tables in the following questions: 

Affordable rent: Homes available for rent at up to 80% of market rate. 

Social rent: Social housing available for rent at or close to target rents on the basis of the Rent Influencing Regime Guidance. 

Intermediate rent: Homes available for reduced rent as an opportunity for the customer to save towards a deposit e.g. Rent to Buy.  

Older people: Accommodation specially designated for older people.  

Low-cost home ownership (LCHO): Includes shared ownership and shared equity homes. 

Supported housing: Accommodation enabling customers to live or adjust to living independently despite specific needs.  

Extra Care: Provides accommodation, meals and assistance with personal care but does not always employ nurses or medical staff. 

The following figures represent stock balance at 31 March 2025 i.e. “homes completed before the last financial year”: 

This year, for the Karbon Homes Group, we have built 707 homes in 14 local authority areas, making it another year where we made our mark as number 26 in the UK’s 50 Biggest Builders (Inside Housing). 

• 59% of the programme was delivered across local authority areas in York, North Yorkshire, Wakefield and East Riding.  
• 20% south of the Tyne  
• 21% North of the Tyne  

The future looks bright with our end of year out-turn showing 605 starts under the Affordable Housing Programme.  

2024/2025 Unit completions across the Karbon Group by local authority area:

We are a Strategic Partner to Homes England who confirmed we had a ‘good year’ in which we secured a £16.1m top-up grant for our Benton Road Extra Care Scheme, plus additional Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and rural developments to be delivered by March 2028. 

Grant funded activity was markedly higher at 79% (from 67 %) compared to non-grant funded activity at 21% (from 33%). This reflects a shift towards more land-led activity following a period of major s.106 non-grant funded stock acquisitions in North Yorkshire to help grow and establish Karbon as a key housing provider within this market. 

New homes built for Karbon Homes only (by tenure) 24/25: 

Targeting the root of the problem, our priority is to invest in all homes which are below EPC C and to make all our new homes as efficient as possible. This includes innovating our way to reduced energy costs through schemes like Seaham Garden Village (see below for more information).  

We also give out energy crisis vouchers to customers, following an income and expenditure analysis, to support them to move out of fuel poverty. We can provide support for up to three weeks but give one week’s worth of support at a time allowing the customer to top up their meter and stay on track. Last year we gave out 701 energy crisis vouchers worth £27,706. 

We issue tenancies appropriate to the housing model (general needs, supported, sheltered etc.) but where possible we provide the highest security of tenure - assured lifetime tenancies.  

Last year we reported our Customer Services Team restructure which was designed to ensure that Karbon colleagues have an even greater knowledge and familiarity with the customers they serve by reducing the size of our working ‘patches’, and combining the role of Allocations and Housing Officer to promote consistency of support through the lifetime of the tenancy.   

But the real key to success is the layers of support we offer and how they collectively provide a much more responsive service. 

We have plenty of support options available to customers, meaning that when a customer joins us, and at any point during their tenancy, we have a suite of services which can make their tenancy more sustainable. This includes the practical services outlined below, as well as the value-added support services detailed in C23. 

Pre-tenancy: The Money Matters Team make sure new customers are given the financial support they need at the start of the tenancy by providing a financial health check. This is where we capture any entitlement to benefits or reduced water rates, as well as ensuring the customer knows exactly how much they will have at the end of every month based on their income after rent and expenditure.  

This information forms the basis of a user-friendly report which the customer receives to help them budget. This also goes to our Customer Accounts Team who use it to coordinate water rate reductions (amounting to £663,156 in total reductions last year alone), follow up on Universal Credit applications, apply for Alternative Payment Arrangements and, if needed, they’ll set the customer up with our Home Comforts service which provides access to furniture within the Housing Benefit entitlement.  

During tenancy: Once the tenancy is underway, the Housing Team attempt to make three visits in their first year, demonstrating our commitment to ensuring a positive experience. We then contact tenants on an annual basis to understand any of their needs which might develop through their tenancy. The Customer Accounts Team also help customers to make their case to the council for Discretionary Housing Payments whereby the council helps to meet any outstanding arrears or costs which threaten the tenancy. With a full financial picture of the customer, the team can make the most effective case to the local council which helps to release this payment. 

We know that some customers can be struggling without any ‘red flags’ to show this is the case. Our conscientious Property Services Team are always alert to any difficulties they witness, such as potential safeguarding or hoarding issues, when visiting customer homes to carry out repairs, and are encouraged to contact the Housing Team where appropriate through our ‘Something’s not right’ process. The process was designed to help our front-line teams remain vigilant to any concerning issues in people’s homes and trigger a response which is to report rather than to overlook.

% of homes for which all required gas safety checks have been carried out. 

% of homes for which all required fire risk assessments have been carried out. 

% of homes for which all required electrical safety checks have been carried out. 

Karbon conducts a programme of rolling surveys over five-year timescales. At 2024/25 year end, Karbon had a stock condition access rate of 85.7% (the sector averages around a 60% access rate.) 

100% of our homes meet the Decent Homes Standard. 

Having effective resources to report damp and mould are an important first line of defence. We have adapted our customer portal so that residents can book damp and mould inspections and upload photos to provide further insight.  

We also have a dedicated damp and mould section of our website which encourages customers to report any cases and book a survey if we have not yet had access to their property. This is important because our stock condition surveys include the risk assessment approach known as the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) which includes damp and mould as one of the key hazards which an inspection needs to identify. We have also implemented a new damp and mould inspection process which involves repeat visits to affected properties to ensure any issues have been resolved.  

Our efforts to tackle damp and mould are overseen and informed by our Customer Scrutiny Group which finished reviewing our processes in October last year.  Their recommendations for 2025 included creating a dedicated damp and mould repairs service to enhance customer experience – this team has now been recruited and are ready to go. 

They also recommended giving customers one named point of contact when reporting damp and mould cases to ensure accountability and closure. We will introduce this in September this year. 

How has the housing provider acted on these results? 

Our Tenant Satisfaction Measure (TSM) scores continue to validate our direction as a social housing provider. All our scores are in the upper quartile within the sector except for TP03 (which is median). Please visit our dedicated TSM reporting page for more information: 

**the benchmark is based on 2023-24 RSH published data (which is the latest available) 

We will continue to put in place measures to drive these scores even higher. We have been successful in gaining the ServiceMark accreditation for 2025-2027 after passing our final assessment. ServiceMark is a national standard, independently recognising an organisation’s achievement in customer service and its commitment to continuous improvement. 

The Institute of Customer Service, which runs the ServiceMark accreditation, observed of our work: “Service quality is a key corporate value, with associated goals, action programmes, measurement and top-level accountabilities. The service culture is driven from the top of the organisation. Managers set a clear vision and demonstrate a strong commitment to customer service excellence in all their communications. 

Service delivery targets are woven into objectives at all levels, from strategic planning to individual KPIs, ensuring that a customer-focused mindset is consistently reinforced across the organisation.”

How have these complaints (or others) resulted in change of practice within the housing provider?

The Ombudsman upheld 10 complaints across the group in the last year – five for Karbon and five for 54North Homes.. In response to these adjudications and our learnings from complaints in general, we have made several changes of practice, investing in both policy and procedure and the people behind it.  

This year we introduced our new Customer Feedback Team who will support us in managing customer complaints, end to end. When a new complaint is logged, it will be assigned to a member of the team, who will work with the customers and other teams to understand and respond to issues raised.  

How successful are these services in improving outcomes? 

Community investment  

The ways in which Karbon’s Community Investment Team invest in the regional economy earned us the title of Community Business of the Year from the North East Chamber of Commerce. We invested £284,464 across the following local authority areas: 

Now a regular part of the team’s annual schedule, our Holiday Squad continues to provide much needed relief for parents across the school holiday period by providing a range of enjoyable activities and a free meal.  

Specialist sessions for SEND children were run in partnership with the Newcastle United Foundation and the Hub at Consett as well as a raft of measures introduced on our mainstream programme to make all our sessions as accessible as possible. As well as directly funding our own provision, the team also worked closely with North Tyneside Council to fund additional places on their programmes for SEND children.  

We’ve supported 6,274 kids and their families since the project began which includes 2,738 children in the last year alone. 

Income and money management 

In 2024/25, our Money Matters advice service helped 5,277 customers achieve £6,051,826 worth of income gains, which is 33% more than we reported last year. Our work was broadly split across the following case categories:

Of the 2,000 ‘legacy, discretionary and contributory benefits secured’ in the table above, over 50% were crucial to enabling customers to sustain their tenancy with us, highlighting the holistic support a housing association can give to customers through a good money advice service.  

The Household Support Fund (HSF) is a good example of how the addition of good quality financial advice can add significant value to an often quite transactional welfare payment. The HSF funds around two-thirds of council-run local welfare provision. Each local authority has their own priorities for the fund and their own distribution mechanisms. 

Karbon directly distributed £27,000 to 600 households on behalf of Point North Durham to our customers. That money was supplemented with £73,000 from our own Karbon Living Fund taking the combined total to £100,000. 

Part of the strength of our Money Matters service is that it works within the parameters of the local economy, building partnerships and relief networks which benefit our residents. The value of Northumbrian Water’s Support Plus Scheme is a good example. In the last year alone, the scheme provided water rate discounts worth £663,156 to Karbon customers most in need.

Illustrating the level of need our teams often encounter we also gave out 1,268 food crisis vouchers worth £70,705. 

Employability and skills  

The Housing Employability Network North East (HENNE) partnership which includes Karbon and 11 other local housing associations won Partnership of the Year at the Northern Housing Awards. The judges commended us for ‘an outstanding example of a housing collaboration delivering real measurable impact on employability and economic resilience. HENNE has created a scalable, sustainable employment support model. Their programmes provide tailored pathways into work ensuring social housing tenants have access to life changing opportunities.’   

Our work with HENNE to date has secured £6.4m from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which has led to the creation of 252 New Start placements across the North East to date with 142 of these placements created this year alone. New Start placements are five-month paid placements for economically inactive people and those who face barriers to employment, giving them work experience and the chance of a permanent role, while the business is able to expand and take on more staff, giving people an opportunity to prove themselves in the role. 

Our work was validated this year with funding extensions worth £2,305,846, including for two Karbon-led HENNE projects in South Tyneside and the North East Combined Authority area.   

Provide examples or case studies of where the housing provider has been engaged in placemaking or placeshaping activities.

Fair Foundations Place Programme 

Everyone deserves a fair chance to realise their potential, wherever they live. That is why we introduced our strengthened Fair Foundations approach to Place.  

• What? Our approach to evaluating places and interventions based on the concept of the foundational economy. 
• How? A coalition of active, willing, like-minded partners to tackle the challenges of left behind places. 
• Where? We are piloting our approach in two Karbon Impact Areas, Byker and Stanley - places with recognised needs, where we have a long-standing interest and close relationships with stakeholders who make up a ‘collision of the willing’.  

In Stanley 

We launched our thriving Stanley Action Plan in November 2024, with the support of the Stanley Stakeholder Reference Group – a set of prominent local stakeholders and anchor organisations which allows us to work quickly and with joint purpose.  

We will publish an annual report in Autumn 2025 which will detail our work to date, including:  

• Funding Building Self Belief to deliver ‘Celebrating Stanley’ – a heritage project which works with primary and secondary school aged children to produce anthologies, and a timeline of Stanley along with a series of nine podcasts. 
• Funding Baccanalia to deliver four street markets on Stanley Front Street to increase footfall and foster a sense of community as well as to build the cultural capital of the town. The first market alone attracted 1,900 visitors.  

Karbon Homes, Stanley Town Council, and Durham County Council are also working together to bring investment and regeneration to Stanley Front Street. Meeting regularly, we are looking to bring empty units back into use through liaising with landlords. We are also working with local businesses to raise awareness of support available to them to improve their signage and premises.  

As part of our community consultation to understand what residents want Karbon to deliver in Stanley we commissioned our first art focused intervention in collaboration with The Forge, Annfield Plain Junior School and St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School. Together we created the art installation: A child’s eye view of “Home”, generating a local talking point, increasing pride in place and supporting local children’s learning outcomes. The work was shortlisted for the North East Culture Awards in November 2024.

In Byker  

Art for social good has been another key theme of our work this year. Having installed murals and art installations across the estate, working in partnership with Byker Primary School and specialist youth service Foundation Futures, we followed up with an arts project to explore the hidden histories of the iconic Byker Wall. The project, a partnership between Karbon and ELEMENTS Street Art Festival, received a £14,560 grant as part of the Historic England ‘History in the Making’ programme, to help bring to life the social history of the Byker estate through art. 

Delivered in collaboration with Foundation Futures, Northern Cultural Projects and the Farrell Centre (Newcastle University), the project will work specifically with young people living on the estate, providing them with a creative outlet to celebrate Byker’s history, as well as its vision for the future.

The project began with a two-day history workshop with the young people involved, exploring the past and present of the estate’s design. This was followed by sessions with local mural and graffiti artist MarkOne87, who encouraged the kids to use what they’d learnt to develop concepts for public art across the estate.

Yes.

Karbon has held G1 and V1 ratings for seven years.  

The National Housing Federation Code of Governance 2020. 

Yes.

Are ESG risks incorporated into the housing provider’s risk register?

On an annual basis the Group Board considers and sets the risk appetite for all strategic risks. As ESG risks emerge, we build them in to our risk management framework. To ensure we do this effectively, it is important the board has good insight into what is going on across all domains.

The board is informed by the business plan but also through the 2025-28 Stronger Foundations Action Plan on which they receive quarterly updates. The plan helps the board to consider Karbon’s impact across homes, customers and place (our three strategic pillars). This includes the progress of our Response to Climate Change project and three key elements within it:

• the delivery of a programme of retrofit works to ensure all our homes reach EPC C ahead of 2030 
• planning for net zero retrofit works to ensure all our homes reach net zero by 2050 
• the production of an Environmental Strategy that addresses our organisational responsibilities to respond to climate change. 

The feedback from committees to board needs to be insightful and actionable. Whilst many of our committees incorporate ESG risks the Group Development Committee (GDC) is particularly relevant as it scrutinises our assets and building developments.

Last year the GDC set an agenda to look beyond compliance to consider the full scope of environmental sustainability risk. We hope that this detail shows that we have strong ‘second line’ assurance around ESG risks. The Group Audit and Risk Committee (GARC) is also central to ESG risks.

GARC and our board receive detailed strategic risk reports on a quarterly basis, including risks that may be escalating or need a ‘closer watch’. Increasingly these risks are ESG related.

Importantly, the efforts of the committees and the board are supported by our Strategy and Insight Team who provide detailed board reports including performance against key indicators, Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) and compliance.

No.

Does the housing provider consider resident voice at the board and senior management level?  

Does the housing provider have policies that incorporate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) into the recruitment and selection of board members and senior management? 

We reported last year that we were developing our approach to Board recruitment, moving beyond our policy which states that the board should reflect the communities it serves.  

We reported that we were trying to balance the age of our board by recruiting a younger demographic. We do this through a range of tactics and specialist recruiters including the Housing Diversity Network. 

We now have two trainee board members on a two-year programme who are representative of diverse backgrounds. They both have lived experience of social housing. We see this as the start of a recruitment pipeline, or a ‘board academy’, through which we can develop a talent pool for ourselves and the sector.  

Resident involvement is integrated into our formal governance structure through the Karbon Group Customer Committee (GCC) which ensures resident voice is considered at board and senior management levels. There are currently three residents on the committee who work directly with the Karbon Residents Committee, which includes a broad range of customers. 

A board is only as good as the information it receives and our combination of targeted resident involvement, along with effective reporting on customer complaints, TSMs and comprehensive data dashboards provide a comprehensive knowledge base which translates easily into insight and action.  

The following information on board, customer and colleague demographics provides further insight into how representative we are:

What % of the housing provider’s Senior Management Team have turned over in the last two years? 

In the last two years, three of our twelve board members have left the business. Two of these departed in 2023, with one leaving in 2025. 

Our senior management team includes 21 people. It is comprised of Karbon Management Team (KMT) which are our Directors and Assistant Directors, and our Executive Team. The turnover for the Senior Management Team in the last year is 14%. 

Five out of the current six board members on the Group Audit and Risk Committee have recent and relevant financial experience. Two are qualified accountants or auditors. As a rule of thumb, we always maintain at least one member with this kind of direct experience, but we prefer to have two. 

92% (11 out of the 12 board members are non-executive directors, the one executive board member is the Chief Executive). 

Yes. Our Code of Governance requires that we have a formal succession plan and a board development plan. We provide formal succession updates to our Group Renumeration, Nominations and People Committee with brief updates to group board.  

Beever and Struthers has been our external audit firm/partner for 11 years, although the specific Audit Partner (the individual who conducts the audit) changed in 2022.   

The last board effectiveness review was carried out by Altair from September 2023 to February 2024. We also carry out internal effectiveness reviews of Boards and Committees every year, in line with governance best practice.   

Board members complete an annual declaration of interests which informs us of any changes to their situation. At board and committee meetings, members raise any potential conflicts of interest for the business being discussed. The member may then be asked not to contribute to the decision or to leave while the business is discussed.   

Yes.

The following figures are calculated using a standardised methodology from the Department of BEIS known as Option A. This method represents the most statistically accurate way of identifying UK employee remuneration using three percentile points for added clarity. 

We have an EDI policy, and we offer additional training through our learning management system. We also increasingly carry out equality impact assessments (EIAs) when making key decisions and changes in policy. The assessments help us to understand the subtle impacts and voices of people affected by our work, for example during a programme of planned investment.  

Our Inclusion Hubs also help us to hear the voices of marginalised or underrepresented groups more effectively. We now have nine of these colleague-led hubs which so far include Gender, LGBT+, Disability and Neurodiversity, and Armed Forces. As well as being support networks, these groups come up with practical measures to make our workplace more inclusive. 

Last year we reported on the Disability Hub and its work on producing a Wellbeing Passport which defines and lists the kinds of adaptations people need in a format which they can carry with them throughout their career, avoiding them having to repeat their needs. This passport is due to be released as part of our EDI toolkit. 

As a mark of progress within EDI, we’ve received our Level 3 Disability Confident Accreditation and we have a silver level accreditation with the National Centre for Diversity.  

Our work was acknowledged at the HR&D Awards where we won an award for ‘Excellence in Inclusion and Diversity’. The award acknowledges our hubs, our overall culture and novel initiatives like ‘In Their Shoes Community Housing’, a fictitious housing association, which uses props and simulations to help participants better understand the everyday realities faced by people with disabilities. 

As members of the Better Health at Work Awards, we’ve reached the highest level of their programme known as ‘continuing excellence’, and this year we were awarded ‘ambassador status’ for our health campaigns, our employee benefits package and the structured nature of our work. We have five well-being pillars: Be healthy, Be safe, Be resilient, Be connected and Be savvy. 

A member of our senior leadership team sponsors each of the pillars, using their voice to promote what is available to colleagues across the business including reduced gym memberships, how to use our BHSF health plan, invitations to join our sports teams and more.  

Staff turnover and sickness absence help us to measure wellbeing. But perhaps the most significant indicator is our Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), generated via surveys which ask employees if they believe Karbon is ‘a great place to work’. Our rising scores show that we have built a culture which we can be proud of: 

HIVE - the organisation who designed the framework - produced the following guidance which indicates that our eNPS score of +43 is ‘outstanding’: 

• +40 = outstanding 
• +20 to +40 = very good 
• -10 to +20 = average 
• -10 or less = below average 

The Competence and Conduct Standard recognises that management professionals who work for social landlords should be skilled and qualified. The new standard will encompass vast swathes of housing managers, and is challenging the sector to provide greater access to training.    

‘Development for all’ is a cornerstone of our People Strategy and housing associations which embed a culture of training, internal promotion and low staff turnover will be best equipped to meet the standard. With around 55 internal promotions every year, we are well placed to do that. 

In addition to competency, we aim to be a united organisation driven by collective values where colleagues believe in what we do and are encouraged to continue developing. One recent project has been an initiative which seeks to help managers have better conversations with their teams. 

This is vital because with over 1,200 employees we have a clear opportunity to change the lives of our colleagues as well as our residents. If we can bolster the social mobility of 1,200 local people that has an inevitable knock-on effect in the communities which we serve.  

In 2024/25 we agreed to fund 30 formal qualifications for colleagues to aid in their career development, supported them to attend 28 conferences and paid for memberships to eight professional bodies. 

Our Aspire to Lead programme continues to enhance leadership skills within the organisation. Since launching the programme we’ve had 42 candidates go through it, with 26% achieving a promotion so far.  
 
Developing people effectively requires skilled coaching. Our internal coaching programme continues to deliver with candidates saying it has helped them make the changes they needed either very well or extremely well. Participants reported: 

• increased confidence 
• improved relationships 
• greater ability to navigate difficult situations 
• enhanced application of leadership skills in their roles. 

 
As well as our mandatory learning programmes which all colleagues undertake, 75% of colleagues receive additional development.  

Development doesn't just mean training. In fact, when thinking about learning and growing, formal and structured training tends to be one of the least effective methods of development. At Karbon we talk about the three Es of development: experience, exposure and education.  

Individuals can access a range of support which includes: 

• One professional membership granted to each employee. 
• Funded training for development in your current role, as well as potential future roles. 
• Qualification funding. 
• Apprenticeship opportunities. 
• Learning and growing circles where colleagues gather in small groups to gain exposure to key topics.  
• A learning management system (accessed via desktop and remote devices) filled with a broad range of content. 
• The Leadership Essentials programme where managers develop their leadership styles underpinned by key models and common principles that we have adopted at Karbon.   
• The Aspire to Lead programme for colleagues identified as potential future talent and who are looking to take their next step into leadership.   

What measures are in place to monitor the delivery of this Social Value?

Social value is a key part of our procurement activity, using the returns we get from our contracts to create opportunities for our customers and communities. Find out more about our Hedgeley Road Social Value Project.

Over the last year we’ve refined our approach to social value with a number of key activities:   

• refreshed our Themes, Outcomes and Measures (TOMS) framework that we use in procurement, aligning them with our Fair Foundations approach and the needs of our communities  
• identified key partners for social value delivery to ensure we’re having an impact in the right places 
• placed greater emphasis on monitoring and evidence collection to ensure social value reflects the wider impact our spend has – particularly in relation to employment  
• enhanced our social value offer in our development programme to start to capture social value across all contracts linked to our Strategic Partnership funding from Homes England. 

This year we’ve worked with 47 contractors to deliver over £2.8million of social value.

We hope the examples below show the variety of benefits that well-managed social value can offer: 

• It’s not just about monetary contributions, our contractors have provided over £29,400 of in-kind support including everything from providing fridge freezers to installing drains. 
• Our materials supplier Jewson recruited a Karbon Homes customer previously supported by our Foundations for Life team as a Social Value Apprentice to support our contract.   
• Suppliers like Able Construction have delivered 155 hours of educational activities in schools and colleges bringing industry into the classroom. 
• Two of our supply chain took on New Start placements in addition to their social value commitments. 
• £160,000 in funding from our Social Value Fund and our RE:GEN Partnership Fund was donated to a variety of projects from breakfast clubs to community defibrillators. 

What measures are in place to monitor the sustainability of your supply chain when procuring goods and services? 

Each contract we procure is subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment generating an awareness of how our activities as a buyer can impact our environment. When we go out to tender, we check that each supplier has an Environmental Policy and Strategy, and we ask the following question which is weighted according to the requirements of the tender: 

“Demonstrate your organisation’s approach to environmental sustainability. Include measures taken by your organisation to achieve environmental sustainability, and compliance with relevant regulations, legislation and standards.” 

We continue to roll out our Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) system ensuring that suppliers upload their key compliance documents including a mandatory Carbon Reduction Plan. All our higher risk (Tier 1 and 2) suppliers are on the system and are required to maintain up-to-date documentation. 

Our procurement work is guided by an ongoing Maturity Assessment which looks at nine procurement pillars and how we perform against each, providing clear targets by which we can improve our activities. In the coming year, we’ll strive to test the parameters of what sustainability can mean in procurement, whether that’s more obvious angles such as environmental sustainability or what sustainability means to the local business sector and wider economy.  

We recruited a formal Customer Procurement Panel in 2023 who advise us on the specifications of our procurements which often includes value for money and environmental priorities. The panel meets four times a year to scrutinise our work.