Modern Slavery Law
This policy applies to all employees of Houseright Estate Agency, as well as other companies, suppliers, contractors, business partners and agencies acting on our behalf, including directors, managers, and all members of staff.
Houseright Estate Agency has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and human trafficking in our operations and our supply chain. We are committed to ensure that modern slavery is not present in our organisation or any of our supply chains. We expect that our business partners will take the same approach with their own suppliers. We respect human rights and the integrity of individuals. We comply with all relevant laws in the way we run our businesses. We have in place a whistleblowing policy which applies to relevant employees, officers, consultants, casual workers and agency workers in the group.
This “Speak Up” policy encourages everyone working for us to report any malpractice or illegal acts, including suspicion of modern slavery and human trafficking, or omissions or matters of similar concern by other employees or former employees, contractors, suppliers, partners or advisers using a prescribed reporting procedure. We engage an external and independent third party based in the UK to provide a reporting facility for individuals to bring these areas of concern to our attention in a secure and confidential manner.
This facility includes access to a 24/7 confidential whistleblowing telephone line. We are also committed to conducting our businesses ethically and lawfully which includes ensuring, as far as possible, that any third parties who act for us share this commitment. The company’s “Working with Third Parties” policy is in place to help to identify and mitigate risks associated with the third parties who perform services for us or on our behalf. This includes guidance on undertaking appropriate due diligence on existing or prospective third parties based on identifiable risks. We have group‐wide template clauses which are included in appropriate contracts to allow contracting parties to formally acknowledge, commit to and abide by applicable anti‐slavery and human trafficking legislation.
Working with Third Parties’ Policy
At Houseright Estate Agency, we strive to only conduct business with third parties that commit to maintaining high ethical standards and operating responsibly. We rely on various third-party partners to help us achieve our targets and deliver our purpose. Maintaining consistent standards and behaviours helps build trust and valuable relationships – with our consumers, stakeholders and suppliers. Any third party that supports our business must apply responsible business behaviours and high ethical standards of business conduct in compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.
As a respected estate agency with global reach, Houseright Estate Agency recognises that we have a role to go beyond by driving best practices in key areas such as human rights, environmental protection, and anti-bribery and corruption. So, we follow set processes designed to ensure that we work only with third parties who uphold the highest standards. This position statement sets out the minimum expectations which we have of all third parties which do business with Houseright Estate Agency, as well as other areas of importance to us. They are aligned to our own Code of Conduct and reflect our current Third-Party Risk Management Programme (TPRM). Our TPRM Programme applies a risk-based approach to the level of due diligence which we undertake on third parties before we engage them, the standards which we want to enforce on them via contractual provisions, as well as the level of ongoing oversight that we apply. We also expect that our third-party counterparties will maintain their own responsible business policies as well as a process to communicate requirements to their suppliers and to monitor supplier compliance. While we expect high standards of third parties with whom we work, we also want to support them as part of our broader commitment to improving supply chain standards. Small businesses, for example, often struggle with cash-flow issues. We therefore offer preferential payment terms to small and medium-sized companies in the UK.
As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we aim to support suppliers run by groups that are under-represented in the supply chain such as those owned by women and minorities. Appropriate action will be taken against third parties found in breach of their contractual undertakings, up to and including termination of their contract with Houseright Estate Agency.