Governance

Corporate social responsibility - Doing the right thing in the community

During 2007, Bradford & Bingley grew its community programme by 10% to £1,850,616 (2006: £1,687,011) as we continued our investment into the communities in which we live and work. This is the seventh consecutive year we have invested over £1 million and the second time we have invested in excess of £1.5 million.

We believe it is important to have a community programme that is relevant to Bradford & Bingley as a business. Preventing and alleviating the causes of homelessness continue to be our main corporate area of support. We have used the increase in our community programme this year to launch a number of schemes supporting personal finance education, both in schools and with parents, as a second area of corporate support.

Bradford & Bingley also invests heavily in the West Yorkshire region, specifically in Bradford and the Aire Valley where its Head Office is located. We support a wide range of community projects in West Yorkshire, including a number of grass roots and community sports projects run by the major professional sports clubs in the area.

Supporting our staff is also important to us and so we have two schemes that are available to support their choice of charities - matched fundraising and matched payroll giving.

Preventing and alleviating the causes of homelessness

We were delighted that in 2007, Bradford & Bingley was recognised in the Business in the Community Awards for Excellence, with the award of a Silver Big Tick. This marked a decade of working with Shelter. The Silver Big Tick was a special Jubilee Award made by BITC to mark the 25th anniversary of it's formation.

Since 1996, Bradford & Bingley has worked with Shelter, the UK's national campaigning charity for homeless and badly housed people. Shelter provides free, professional and independent advice, advocacy and support to over 100,000 people per year. Business Action on Homelessness ('BAOH') is BITC's flagship programme relating to homelessness. BAOH is a unique partnership between leading businesses, homelessness agencies and the government, which aims to break the vicious cycle of no job, no home, by helping homeless people to find employment and achieve independent living. Bradford & Bingley is a national member of BAOH and Steven Crawshaw, our Chief Executive, sits on the BAOH executive forum.

In 2007, Bradford & Bingley agreed to completely fund the launch of BAOH in Bradford for a minimum of three years and we have also appointed a Programme Manager who is based in our Head Office in Crossflatts.

Personal Finance Education

Bradford & Bingley is working with the UK Career Academy Foundation, who lead and support a national movement of employers, schools and colleges, working to raise the aspirations of 16 to 19 year-olds who are considering a career in finance.

Bradford & Bingley is supporting the Foundation in two secondary schools in Bradford ( Buttershaw High School and Dixons Technology College) who launched the Career Academy course in September 2007.

Bradford & Bingley staff participate in two ways: some of our senior managers have been into the schools to deliver lectures or take class exercises; and other managers have agreed to become a mentor to a student.

Bradford & Bingley is also working with Care for the Family ('CFF'), a national charity which aims to promote strong family life. Together we have developed a course called Quidz In which is aimed at parents who want to learn how to talk about personal finance with their children.

Supporting charities and organisations throughout West Yorkshire

Each year, staff at our Head Office sites in Bingley and Crossflatts vote on a choice of charity for the year. This year, the staff voted for Yorkshire Air Ambulance and monthly dress down days and other charitable activities have helped to raise over £6,000 for the charity.

In June, Steven Crawshaw led a national visit to Bradford with HRH The Prince of Wales' Seeing is Believing Programme which focused on Bradford's regeneration plans. Chief executives and senior managers of fourteen national companies came to Bradford to see how private, public and voluntary sectors can work together to support and deliver a regeneration agenda.

Bradford & Bingley continues to work with local primary and secondary schools, during 2007 we participated in the Young Enterprise Scheme with Bingley Grammar School. The Young Enterprise Company Programme is run over an academic year and gives students practical experience of business and enterprise by setting up and running their own business. Bradford & Bingley staff participate by becoming business mentors who work with the students in a weekly meeting.

The Community Action Team, which consists of staff volunteers from across all functions of the business and a representative from the Community Affairs team, has used funds to specifically support their local communities. They meet monthly to consider requests from local charities and community groups and make small grants averaging an approximate £650. During 2007, 40 charities received funding (in the Bingley area).

Bradford & Bingley continues to encourage employee involvement, in particular, by supporting their fundraising activities.

All employees are able to apply for funds to match their fundraising efforts for charity in a scheme which matches the first £250 of funds raised per employee. We saw a large increase of 42% in matching during the year totalling £32,680 (2006: £23,084). We also saw an increase in the number of staff receiving matching, up 36% to 144 (2006: 106). This increase has been driven by increased internal promotion, including presentations to all new starters in the Group's induction programme.

Bradford & Bingley also matches employee donations through the payroll-giving programme, Give As You Earn. We continued to promote the scheme to new and existing employees via online and internal promotions. 7.8% of our workforce now donate via Give As You Earn (2006: 8.5%), although, we have seen average monthly amounts donated rise to £26.90 (2006: £23.84). As a Group, Bradford & Bingley matched £81,331 of employee donations (2006: £78,675).