At Redrow we use our planning and design skills to develop our quality land holdings into sustainable and vibrant places to live. 

Placemaking

Central Government has placed a new emphasis on the design quality of housing developments and plans to issue new planning guidance on design as well as a ‘design manual’ later this year. At Redrow we fully embrace the placemaking agenda. We have completed hundreds of new communities over the last 40 years, all of which are instantly recognisable as “Redrow places”. Creating a better way to live by producing high quality homes is an integral part of our culture. Our 8 placemaking principles, “Redrow 8”, are based on a customer-focused approach to creating better places to live and are well-established across our divisions. By using these principles we will ensure that we leave a legacy of attractive, sustainable and vibrant places to live for generations to come.

This year we launched our placemaking manual “Designing a Better Way to Live”. This comprehensive document sets out a series of measurable principles for each of our “Redrow 8” placemaking principles together with case studies giving examples of how we have successfully delivered each of these on a Redrow development. The manual is now being used across the Group to guide and shape all of our new developments to ensure that they consistently meet our high standards for creating great places to live.

Our Group Master Planning team is responsible for working with our divisions and promoting our placemaking approach, thus ensuring through a comprehensive programme of design reviews that all of our developments consistently deliver better places to live. Each layout and completed development is now measured against our principles to generate a ‘Redrow 8 score’ so that we can monitor the delivery of each of our design objectives. The scoring system also provides a ‘health and wellbeing’ score based on how the place encourages social interaction, provides for walking and cycling, incorporates nature as well as providing attractive green spaces.

Our Garden Village developments are an important example of how we deliver better places to live. Here our approach to creating great places is inspired by the timeless principles of the original garden city movement such as the integration of generous, accessible and good quality open spaces and the creation of attractive tree-lined streets.

Click here to view the Garden Villages Brochure

Land

During the financial year the Group acquired 7,371 plots with planning permission to add to our current (owned and contracted) land holdings. This more than compensated for the 6,443 legal completions in the year and, after the impact of replans too, resulted in us closing the year with 28,566 plots in the current land holdings, a 3% increase on the previous year closing position (2018: 27,630).

Forward land continues to make a significant contribution to land additions and delivered 40% (2018: 37%) of the 7,371 current land additions in the year across 14 sites. In the light of this, we have continued our strategy of strengthening our forward land holdings ending the year with 31,500 plots, a 3% increase on the previous year (2018: 30,700 plots).

Developing Healthy Places To Live

Ensuring positive health and wellbeing outcomes for our customers and communities is a key part of our social purpose. We have embedded objectives for delivering healthy places to live within our "Redrow 8" placemaking principles referred to above. These include making our developments easy to get around, to encourage walking and cycling, providing places to go and things to do to help create a sense of community, as well as bringing nature into our developments to benefit physical and mental health. During the year we created c70 hectares of public open space, ranging from parkland, wildlife areas and outdoor sports and fitness facilities. At our Frenchay Gardens development near Bristol, for example, we are creating an outdoor gym, giving the community the opportunity to exercise for free on their doorstep.

Redrow are active members of NHS Healthy New Towns Network and our "Redrow 8" principles have been informed by this and embed the objectives of the NHS ten principles for healthy places. Our "Redrow 8" scoring system enables us to record the degree to which each new development meets our health and wellbeing objectives and we will be able to use this information to ensure we take every opportunity to make our new places as healthy as possible. A great example of this is at our Cherhill View development, Calne where we have built new allotments for the community to grow their own fresh fruit and vegetables.

Community Engagement

New developments, when done well, can unlock sites and create thriving and prosperous communities. We work alongside the local community to design developments that integrate well into the surrounding area, with a strong local identity. We entered into a 50/50 partnership with LB Wandsworth to deliver the residential-led regeneration of a 1960s built estate in Roehampton, London. We actively engaged with stakeholders, through a series of workshops, providing numerous opportunities for local people to participate in the masterplan development process. In addition we ran a number of community events including the Roehampton ‘Feel Good’ Festival and Safer Neighbourhood events.

We organise welcome meetings and community events on our developments to help forge new friendships and strengthen existing community networks. At Amington Garden Village, Tamworth we ran a community day to bring customers, staff, stakeholders and council members together to celebrate the new site and discuss future community activities. At our Bloxham Vale development near Banbury we held a ‘Brass on the Grass’ community day with live entertainment a seven-piece New Orleans-style brass band and refreshments.

Bringing Benefits To Local Communities

Creating lasting value for society and improving the quality of life for local communities is an important part of what we do. During the year we delivered a wide range of facilities across the country, including new schools, health centres, cycle and public transport routes, community centres and outdoor social spaces. In total we committed £314m to local communities through formal contributions and affordable homes, up c70% on last year. For example, at Amington Garden Village we are building a new school and community centre, expanding an existing nature reserve, creating a new community woodland and a series of cycle networks in the area.

Additionally, we also contributed many more hours and donations supporting a wide and diverse variety of local groups in the communities close to our developments. For example our local Community Funds across the country support countless local initiatives including gifting bird boxes and hedgehog hotels to primary schools; new books to a children’s hospital; donations to a club which gives visually impaired people access to tennis lessons and to another club helping give deaf and hard of hearing residents the confidence to face social interaction and reduce isolation.

Achieving Gains For Nature

For many years we have carefully protected wildlife and habitats on our developments, but more recently there has been a growing recognition that across the UK our wildlife is in decline. Everyone must do more - not just to protect what’s already there - but to design and create additional, quality habitat for wildlife as a part of our activities. We recognise the opportunities that exist for us to make a difference in this area, which is why we are supportive of the Government’s plans to mandate biodiversity net gain for new development. We have been working closely with Government bodies to contribute to this emerging agenda; we are members of Greater Manchester Biodiversity Net Gain Task Group and John Tutte, our Executive Chairman sits on the Council for Sustainable Business which has also been considering the issue.

We have been undertaking biodiversity net gain calculations on our developments to enable us to review our current design approach. At our Caddington Woods development, Luton our designs are forecast to achieve a 64% net gain for biodiversity. We are converting this former car park into a new community of 325 homes complete with open spaces designed in partnership with RSPB. The designs consist of native shrubs and species-rich grassland as well as the creation of new wildlife ponds. The development is surrounded by broad-leaved woodland which is being enhanced to provide improved habitat for wildlife and a great natural space for the community to enjoy. 

Partnering For Nature

We have partnered with The Wildlife Trusts to develop a new Nature for People strategy for Redrow. Throughout the year we have been reviewing our current design approach and working with teams across the business to help co-develop the new strategy document. The strategy will focus on delivering biodiversity net gains and helping connect communities with nature on our developments, as well as ensuring effective ongoing management of green spaces into the future to ensure lasting gains are achieved.

A great example of how we are already leaving a lasting legacy is our Heritage Park development, Penymynydd, North Wales. Here, Redrow gifted an area of land to the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) Trust to be developed into a local nature reserve. Previously the land had been a quarry, a pub and agricultural land which provided little wildlife value. Two years later, the site is now rich in wildlife, with surveys showing a 6-fold increase in the Great Crested Newt population, as well as new species such as the rare mud snail. The site will provide opportunities for the local community to enjoy nature for years to come.

We will shortly celebrate five years of fruitful partnership working with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. In that time we have created several bumblebee flagship projects, advised many other developments, incorporated bee-friendly planting in our show home gardens, trained landscapers and management companies on the right approach for bumblebees, given over 1,500 free memberships of the Trust to our customers - with another c.1,000 due to be given this coming year - and developed a range of bee information for customers and education packs for school children. This year we were delighted to be shortlisted for in the Business Charity Awards for charity partnership in the property & construction category.

We continue to improve our systems and efficiencies, working closely with our suppliers and subcontractors to deliver increasing numbers of our quality homes.

Growing Our Business Responsibly

As we continue to grow and deliver much needed new homes, it is important that we do so in a responsible and sustainable manner.

We are pleased to have achieved a Gold Award from NextGeneration for the fourth consecutive year, remaining in third position in the UK’s top 25 housebuilders with an improved score of 82% (2018: 80%). NextGeneration is an independent organisation which benchmarks housebuilders on their sustainability performance with scores based on assessing the environmental and societal impact of our homes and developments.

This year we have also received the NextGeneration Innovation Award in recognition of our commitment to supporting healthy communities by developing a unique social value calculator. As the first developer to carry out research, in conjunction with a research consultancy, on the social value associated with multiple aspects of home building and community creation, our ground-breaking work ensures we have a clearer, more holistic perspective on the impact of placemaking decisions. It also helps us to take a more strategic approach to design and community planning and further our knowledge and perspective on the features and characteristics of a new development which are most likely to make people happier and healthier. The introduction of the calculator has enabled us to have more informed conversations with local authorities and planning teams about our homes and investment in community focused infrastructure.

Revenue, Legal Completions and Outlets

Revenue this year exceeded £2bn for the first time at £2.1bn (2018: £1.92bn), a 10% increase. The sale of homes accounted for all but £21m of revenue, which as last year was attributable to land sales (2018: £20m). Growth came from across all our geographical regions other than Greater London which was broadly stable.

We delivered a record 6,443 legal completions in 2019, a 13% increase on 2018 levels (2018: 5,718).

Affordable housing accounted for 27% of legal completion volumes compared to 19% in the previous year and 12% of homes revenue (2018: 7.5%). This increase was expected.

Apartments represented 20% of private legal completion volumes and 19% of private sales revenue, a slight reduction on 2018 levels of 21% volume and 22% revenue respectively.

The Group had 126 active outlets on average in 2019, slightly higher than the 124 in the previous year.

Responsible Sourcing and Procurement

As partners and active participants of the Supply Chain Sustainability School we are engaging extensively with our supply chain on a range of sustainability issues. We have held a number of briefings and workshops with the School, across our divisions in the past year, to raise the skills and knowledge of our supply chain across a number of important issues.

We have partnered with an external company, Datum RPO, for the supply of agency labour to ensure we have a legally compliant workforce. Regular audits are undertaken of the labour supply chain to prevent non-compliance and potential illegal working practices.

We have achieved the highest possible score in the WWF’s 2019 Timber Scorecard, achieving ‘3 Trees’ in the assessment by WWF for the third time in succession. This is in recognition of our work in ensuring that 99.9% of our timber products are responsibly sourced and credibly certified; playing our part in protecting the world’s forests.

In addition, we have undertaken a comprehensive supply chain mapping exercise to identify the source/country of origin for the other products used in the construction of our homes, to better understand and investigate potentially high risk products with respect to social and environmental ethics. 

Throughout the year we have been continuing to work with our supply chain to assess product packaging and identify opportunities to eliminate or reduce the amount of packaging used - particularly single-use plastics. Where packaging is necessary to protect products and materials we are working with suppliers to find ways to reuse or recover the packaging effectively, as well as examining material compositions. We have long had in place a pallet repatriation scheme and are currently trialling a new approach that will enable the recovery, repair and re-introduction of dedicated pallets for construction products.

Valuing and Developing People and Partners

One of our strategic aims is to inspire future industry talent and to support our colleagues at every stage of their career. Training and development is an important aspect of this and consistently 15% of our employees are on structured training programmes with 226 internal promotions in the year.

We continue to evolve our learning and development offerings, many delivered at our dedicated in-house training centre at Tamworth and three satellite centres around the Group. Redrow has now become an approved training organisation with CITB and continues to be an accredited training provider of NHBC courses. As part of our commitment to diversity and narrowing the gender pay gap, we set up the Redrow Women’s Network to inspire and support future female leaders.

Wellbeing is an increasing focus. During the year we launched a major new wellbeing initiative “Mind Your Head”, having signed the building mental health charter. Our aim is to ensure we have workplaces which support our employees and subcontractors and to educate everyone to raise awareness of mental health, tackle the stigma and get the conversation started. Our target is to train 120 mental health first aiders by December 2019 and we are on track to achieve this. In addition we will be providing training courses for all Directors and Managers, an e-learning module for all employees and toolbox talks for subcontractors.

We introduced a number of new employee benefits in the year in response to feedback and suggestions provided by the 2018 employee engagement survey. The 2019 employee engagement survey was delivered on our behalf again by an external agency and achieved a 91% response rate (2018:90%). This was followed up with workshops across the Group to share feedback and ideas.

We also introduced a Subcontract Assistance Programme during the year to support subcontractors and their families with advice via an independent helpline. In addition, Redrow became a patron of Youth Build which is a charity that promotes and engages with young people to combat social exclusion through the development of construction based support services.

Improving Our Systems and Processes

It is important that as our business continues to grow and evolve, we continue to invest in improving our systems and processes to support this.

We have a dedicated team of in-house IT specialists including a digital team, systems analysts, software developers, IT security officers, help desk experts and systems accountants based at our Head Office led by our Chief Information Officer. The team work closely with Group and the operational business and major systems improvement projects are sponsored by members of the Executive Management Team.

During the year we became the first housebuilder to offer customers the ability to legally complete the reservation of a new home online with the launch of online reservation to significantly enhance our customer journey.

We have further enhanced our iPad based system for site managers introduced last year to support the drive to improve build quality and to get it right first time.

Another example of improvements for stakeholders was the introduction of our fully interactive online Annual Report 2018 which was the first of its kind for a major housebuilder. It was created by our in-house teams and has been well received, winning the “Best Annual Report Award” at the PRCA City and Financial Awards in February 2019.

To meet the demand for new homes, the housebuilding industry must work with Government and the wider community to inspire the next generation to build. 

Inspiring the Next Generation to Build

At Redrow, we believe in collaborating with partners to positively impact people and communities through education and engagement activities.

John Tutte, our Executive Chairman, is also chairman of the Home Building Skills Partnership. Part of the Home Builders Federation, this aims to develop, grow and sustain a programme to provide the workforce the industry requires to deliver the further increases in housing supply the country needs. Its focus is on attracting new entrants into the industry and on providing training to develop the qualified workforce needed to construct high quality new homes.

As mentioned last year, Redrow has developed a housebuilding degree course in conjunction with John Moores University and Coleg Cambria. In March 2019 our second cohort of students commenced their studies with a total of 23 Redrow employees now working via this towards obtaining their BSc in Construction Management – Housebuilding.

This year we delivered over 7,100 training days, an increase of 9% on the previous year. As part of our commitment to evolving our learning and development programmes to better support the business as it grows, we introduced two new development programmes for talented site managers and sales consultants in the year. Potential attendees are identified through our divisional succession planning processes and the programme aims to support and develop these talented individuals to progress to managerial roles within the business.

Our Graduate trainees completed two community projects this year, creating wonderful outside spaces for children to play at a primary school in South Wales and an early years centre in North Wales.

Building Responsibly

This year saw Redrow host its first Building Responsibly Conferences – three regional day-long events held across the country and attended by all of our construction and customer service teams.

With a full complement of our site and customer service managers (CSMs), their assistants and other site-based operatives in attendance, as well as construction managers and health and safety representatives, this required us to cease all building work for a full day and demonstrated our commitment to involving everyone from the ground up in our ongoing efforts to raise standards and get it right first time.

Key themes of the events included health, safety and the environment, build quality, the customer experience and employee engagement, with a special emphasis on mental health first aid training. We also welcomed guest speaker Kyran Bracken, former England World Cup rugby star, who spoke eloquently about teamwork and leading by example, before presenting our inaugural Building Responsibly awards for best overall construction sites in each region and best sites for health, safety and environmental performance.

The conferences also marked the official roll out of two important changes to working practices:

• New iPad technology, specially developed apps and subcontractor portal: Site managers and their assistants inspect the houses at every stage and can now easily and electronically assign work orders to the relevant contractor, attaching photographs and video footage from their iPad if relevant. Subcontractors can accept the work order and share updates, photographs, etc, back via the platform so that site teams and customer services can see the work has been completed, along with any relevant further information. This system allows our site managers to highlight any areas of quality or safety concern instantly, providing photographic evidence, with no need to remember to phone or email the relevant individual later. Site teams can deal with faults more proactively and we have a system that enables us to compile and review data for common faults and to target training for our teams.

• New joint inspection process: Site managers and customer service managers now work together to inspect all properties prior to handover, each of them logging their own issues on their iPads. Whilst they naturally have different areas of concern and focus (CSMs are more likely to focus on finishing, for example), by jointly inspecting they can better communicate with each other and ensure nothing gets missed. This much closer working relationship is helping us to deliver a higher quality product and also means we have a much more comprehensive digital record of the outcome of each inspection.
  
  

With quality at the forefront of all our advances in construction processes, it was particularly pleasing in June 2019 to learn that a record number of our site managers had been recognised in the annual NHBC Pride in the Job Awards. The 12-month selection and judging process identifies site managers who encapsulate skills such as leadership, technical expertise and attention to detail. An impressive 28 of our site managers received Quality Awards and will now compete for the highly coveted Seal of Excellence and Regional Awards this autumn.

In addition or NHBC Construction Quality Assurance Review Score increased to 75% from 70% in 2018.

Product Design

We are active Gold Leaf members of the UK Green Building Council, supporting and contributing to their aim of improving the sustainability of the built environment. During the year we have been involved in events ranging from biodiversity, to zero carbon homes to social value.

Our Internal Product Review Panel meets regularly to evaluate potential new materials, products and suppliers that will help with efficiencies, quality and our sustainability objectives. We use timber frame systems to build a number of properties, which is less labour intensive, has reduced H&S risk, is faster to build and is responsibly sourced. We also install a pre-insulated panelised roofing system on our 2½ storey properties which also has the advantage of reduced reliance on subcontractors and increased build efficiency. The majority of our homes are built using a pre-cast ground floor system incorporating insulated infill blocks. This system has an A+ Green Guide rating and is easier and quicker to build with. Modular construction has been used for the construction of our new Ebbsfleet office.

Tackling climate change and reducing our customer’s energy bills are key considerations in the way we design our homes. Our design process focuses on the right layout, materials and products to retain heat within the home. This is done through greater insulation levels throughout the building, high-specification doors and windows, efficient boilers and great care in achieving increased air-tightness. As a result, our homes are ‘B’ rated, on average, for energy efficiency, comparing to the UK average home which is ‘D’ rated.

Importantly, we help our customers appreciate how best to live in their new home with a view to reducing their energy bills. We do this face-to-face with them, by showing them the home and its energy efficient features during construction, and by showing them how to operate the features, such as ventilation and zone heating, at handover.

During the year Redrow contributed to the ‘Bricks and Water’ Inquiry. The inquiry focused on how to build the number of homes we need in England while at the same time ensuring we improve flood resilience and water availability, and avoid costs for future generations. Our homes are industry-leading in terms of water efficiency with a rating of just 105 litres per person per day, which is well below building regulations.

As well as designing our homes to help mitigate climate change, we are also reviewing how they may need to change in the future in order to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate. We have been undertaking advanced modelling of the performance of our homes in different climatic scenarios to understand the potential impacts. The results will inform our designs to help prevent overheating and ensure the continued comfort and wellbeing of our customers.

Managing Resources Efficiently

The construction industry is one of the biggest contributors of waste in the UK and Redrow continues to focus on eliminating and reducing the amount of waste created. A Group-wide project is tackling the root causes of waste and focusing on the efficient use of materials in our homes. As a result, waste has decreased from 10.63 tonnes per 100m² of build in 2018 to 10.15 tonnes/100m² in 2019. Our ongoing membership of the HBF Waste Forum is enabling us to share best practice and knowledge with our industry peers to tackle waste across the sector.

Throughout the year we have been continuing to work with our supply chain to assess product packaging and identify opportunities to eliminate or reduce the amount of packaging used - particularly single-use plastics. Where packaging is necessary to protect products and materials we are working with suppliers to find ways to reuse or recover the packaging effectively, as well as examining material compositions. We have long had in place a pallet repatriation scheme and are currently trialling a new approach that will enable the recovery, repair and re-introduction of dedicated pallets for construction products.

We recognise the importance of using materials efficiently and reducing waste and have initiatives in place to ensure that our remaining waste is reused, recycled or recovered. During the year 97.7% of our waste was diverted from landfill, an increase from 96.8% in 2018 and exceeding our own target of 95%.

We have continued to work with the Community Wood Recycling scheme; a waste wood collection service which also operates as a social enterprise network. 100% of our waste wood collected by the scheme is recycled, recovered or reused by local communities. Our waste wood has been used on small scale community building projects and also utilised to make a range of useful products including bird boxes and dining tables. Our sites in the South East have benefitted significantly from the scheme which has further encouraged a strong culture of reuse within this division. Effective waste management has also been achieved through quarterly waste audits and regular training with site operatives.

Waste management has also been a focus at our Head Office, as we upgraded our recycling facilities, invested in biodegradable packaging, and started a ‘food to fuel’ initiative – whereby all our catering waste is transformed into Biogas, a renewable source of energy.

We are on course to meet our 2022 target for reduction carbon intensity with a 3% reduction since our baseline year of 2017. Our 2019 Greenhouse Gas emissions have decreased to 2.42 tonnes of CO₂e per 100m² of build (2018: 2.48 tCO₂e/100m²) - these figures are independently verified to a limited level of assurance.

Our carbon reduction strategy is currently focusing on three key areas. We are working to substantially reduce the amount of diesel used on our construction sites, with a key aim of reducing the time that generators are required and that they are sized appropriately. We have been upgrading our site accommodation and welfare units to provide ‘Eco-cabins’ across our sites which have improved insulation; double glazed windows; door closers; LED lighting with PIR activation; room and water heaters with thermal cut-out and timers, as well as waterless urinals. We are also currently carrying out audits of energy use in our offices and show homes and will be implementing a programme of improvements in the coming months. We have recently appointed a new supply partner to work with us on managing service utilities and investigate purchasing energy from a renewable energy tariff.

We have been awarded a ‘B’ grade from our most recent submission to the Carbon Disclosure Project which reflects our positive carbon strategy and programmes for reducing carbon emissions across the business. 

Health & Safety

Ensuring that our sites are safe places to work, live and visit is central to our build operations. We remain committed to improving our overall Health, Safety & Environmental (HS&E) performance. We restructured in 2018 when we increased resources and reorganised into two distinct areas of responsibility: Assurance & Compliance and Development. This year we have launched a full review of our HS&E Management Systems including a new Assurance Inspection Report, a long term project to digitise data gathering and performance monitoring as well as launching a new HS&E Training Standard and Competency Matrix for all employees.

There has been a slight increase in our accident incident rate per site rate to 0.36 (2018: 0.35). We are committed to continuous improvement in its HS&E performance and processes and have identified four key areas of focus to support this. They are Governance, Leadership, Ownership and Workplaces and we are already seeing the benefits of focusing on these areas.

Three of our sites managers were Highly Commended at the NHBC’s annual Health & Safety Awards for demonstrating an outstanding level of health and safety management from planning through to execution. They were among only 27 site managers in the UK to be given this status.

A key element of building responsibly is ensuring that our construction sites are managed in a way that is considerate of the potential impacts on the local area and community, as well as the needs and welfare of the workforce. As a corporate partner of the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS), we have committed to signing-up all our developments to the scheme. This means that regular, independent assessments are undertaken by CCS to determine if our sites are meeting the Scheme’s Code of Practice.

Our Lyon Square development in Harrow received two silver awards in the Considerate Constructors National Site Awards 2019, in recognition for the great efforts that the site has put into raising the bar for considerate construction. Only the highest performing companies and suppliers participating in the national scheme received awards, making this an exceptional achievement.

At Redrow we have a reputation for building award winning homes.

Marketing Strategy

During the year Redrow has continued to evolve its marketing strategy with the launch of a national TV advertising campaign.

Titled ‘They Say…’, the campaign was designed to promote our homes as a premium alternative to the second-hand property market and to challenge outdated perceptions people have about new builds compared to older homes. The content specifically looks to debunk existing myths that were uncovered in a Zoopla Smarter Property Solutions Survey of 600 adults, by applying them to Redrow’s homes.

This found that potential buyers consider new build homes to be easy to maintain, more eco-friendly than a resale home and often to include the latest technology, as well as to have a good layout. However, the results did show that the British public perception is that new builds generally have small rooms, are too uniform, and that their look and style is not appealing.

The advert, launched in early June, demonstrates that this is not the case for Redrow by outlining three stand-out benefits of our homes, underpinned by strong proof points, to show that we build “new homes like no other”.

Redrow homes are large

Our four-bedroom Henley house-type is over 164 square metres, while the Leamington three-bedroom home is approximately 132 square metres. This is significantly more than the new build national average of 88.9 square metres and greater than the Government’s minimum guidelines of 96 square metres.

Redrow homes have character

Each Redrow street scene is carefully designed to be unique, with a mix of different house styles and characteristics. This individual design approach, derived from the Arts & Crafts movement, means that Redrow stands out from other housebuilders and fosters a feeling of characterful personality, often found in second-hand properties, rather than the uniformity seen in many other modern developments.

Redrow homes have soul

Our traditional exteriors are enhanced with the best modern interior designs. Light and airy open plan kitchen, dining and family areas are carefully considered to truly maximise family living spaces and are perfect for entertaining. By including fully finished elements into the build process, we foster early characterisation in a new home to ensure nobody moves into a blank canvas.

The advert is currently being shown across video on demand platforms; All 4 and ITV player, as well as YouTube TrueView. It is also available to view on our website at redrow.co.uk/theysay.

After an initial period of one month across these on demand platforms, the advert was viewed over 2.6 million times. Those that saw it were targeted by geography and demographics as being potential buyers in key areas in which we build. We have committed to investing in this advert into 2020, and will also be continuing to promote it via our social media channels and national email campaigns.

The video was produced by the creative communications company DRPG, who has previously worked on national campaigns for companies including BT, Jaguar Land Rover, Sainsbury’s and Worcester Bosch. The advert was shot in a Redrow home, displaying the interiors available across our Collections.

Redrow Show Homes

At Redrow, our show homes are an important aspect of our sales and marketing strategy. We have a dedicated in-house interior design team who design and create show homes to inspire existing and potential customers alike.

Thriving Communities

We aim to make our developments part of the local community and help our customers appreciate the place aswell as the home.

For example at Taylor’s Chase, Warrington, Cheshire our development site plan signposts key local amenities.

We continue to be committed to providing customer service comparable with the very best from the retail service sectors.

Focus On Customer Service

In March 2019 we were awarded the top Five Star rating by the Home Builders Federation (HBF), based on a survey of customers in which more than 90% said they would recommend Redrow to a friend. 

Indeed, we have increased our customer satisfaction scores year-on-year since the launch of our ‘Customer First’ strategy in 2015. As well as significantly investing in people and systems, we created a customer journey, which was influenced by the best retailers outside of housebuilding. 

As well as the recommend score of more than 90%, we have also achieved a very strong net promoter score (NPS) of 50.3 in the HBF’s survey. The NPS is a measurement used globally across many industries to provide an indication of customer satisfaction and our score ranks amongst the best. 

We also became the first top ten housebuilder to join the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) and, this year, were nominated for Best Customer Satisfaction Strategy at the UK Customer Satisfaction awards. 

We have achieved these accolades following the introduction of a range of customer service focused initiatives, including:

• Customers being engaged throughout their journey to Redrow home ownership, including hard-hat tours, which show future homeowners the care and attention that is going into the process of building their home. These tours are arranged at pre-plaster stage and help customers gain a detailed insight into their new home. 
• Site and Customer Service Managers now use an iPad app when inspecting homes during the build process and beyond. Stages in the inspection process are photographed and automatically communicated to subcontractors. The app is designed in-house and unique to Redrow.
• Customers also benefit from My Redrow, an online members only area, providing a secure dashboard to support their journey and choose their finishes and upgrades to personalise their homes.

Recognising that everyone has a responsibility for customer service, and that it is a Group culture not just a function of the customer service team, our strategy has been driven through all levels of the business. Sales and construction teams have been equally involved in many of the initiatives introduced: from the tone of all ongoing communications with customers whether by phone, text, email or letter, to the hosting of Welcome Parties so customers can meet their new neighbours and to the hard-hat tours.

We’ve brought in customer-focused experts from other sectors to help us to deliver a positive experience to customers; we’ve introduced new handover policies and re-engineered the customer journey, while updating the website, developing bespoke customer service management software and introducing brand new web and app platforms to support our customers.

Redrow won the “Large Developer of the Year” at Property Week’s RESI Awards and whilst it is good to be recognised so highly within our industry, recognition from our customers of our quality and service is more pleasing.

Product

Outside of Greater London, our divisions continue to focus on our award winning Heritage Collection which this year contributed 79% of the Group’s private sales revenue (2018: 72%). Our Lifestyle Collection within our Heritage range is increasingly popular, being just as spacious as our family homes but with fewer but larger bedrooms, all with en-suite bathrooms.

The Heritage Collection is complemented by our bespoke product which represented 21% of private revenue in the year (2018: 28%). Bespoke product is predominantly apartments and features more strongly in the South and Greater London.

Reservations and Order Book

The Group secured just under £1.7bn of private reservations in the year (2018: £1.7bn) and ended the year with a healthy total closing order book of £1.0bn (2018: £1.1bn). This reduction compared to last year was largely a result of weaker trading towards the end of the first half and lower volumes and average selling prices in London. Private reservations per outlet per week were 0.66 compared to 0.70 in the previous year.

Online Reputation

The last decade has seen a huge rise in social media use and, increasingly, customers using it as a primary way to contact us to resolve service issues. While Redrow has been actively engaging with customers on social media since 2012, we recognised we could improve our responses to enquiries made via our key social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

We have utilised an all-in-one social media management platform, Crowd Control HQ, to decentralise and streamline our activities in this area. Customers contacting us via social media now receive direct communications from their local customer service representative, just as they would if they chose to make contact via an email or by phone. We have increased our response rate significantly and, importantly, the speed at which we respond.

In the year ahead we will continue to focus more closely on online reputation and, particularly, how we feature and participate in online customer review websites such as Trustpilot.