Operating environment
| Name of political party | £ |
|---|---|
| Conservative | 4,118 |
| Labour | 8,247 |
| Liberal Democrats | 2,025 |
| Total | 14,390 |
Shareholder authority to permit the Company to continue with these activities until the 2010 AGM will be sought at this year’s AGM.
Our investors
Our main communication with shareholders is through the publication of the annual report and financial statements, half-yearly financial report, interim management statements and through information on the Company’s website. In addition, the executive directors have regular contact with the Company’s large institutional investors, as well as giving presentations to analysts and stockbrokers. During the year, the executive directors met 29 times with a range of institutional investors. Further information on NWG’s shareholder relations is contained in the corporate governance report.
Employees
Each company within the Group has developed its own employee policies, reflecting the framework set out in NWG’s ‘Our Code of Conduct’. These policies are tailored to specific business objectives and operating environments. Each company aims to recruit and retain the best people, with a diverse range of skills, experience and backgrounds, who are committed to making the company successful. In return, each company aims to provide opportunities and training for employees to develop their skills and capabilities to equip them to meet the challenges of their roles, while rewarding the contributions of both teams and individuals.
Equality and diversity
The Group operates an equal opportunity policy and promotes equality of opportunity in recruitment and selection, terms and conditions of employment, and training and career development. The policy is designed to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of age, gender, marital status, disability, race, ethnic or national origin, religion or sexual orientation. NWL monitors its workforce profile against the communities it operates in and aims to ensure it takes full advantage of the rich backgrounds and abilities of current and potential employees.
We are lead sponsors for Castle View Enterprise Academy in Sunderland, which will have a business and enterprise specialism. Our aim is to use our expertise to support academic and vocational attainment and help bring lasting improvement to this community. The area contains some of the most deprived wards in the region; it relied heavily on employment in mining and shipbuilding (neither of which has been available for over 20 years). In many cases, families are experiencing third generation unemployment and ACORN classifies 61%-80% of the school catchment population as being ‘struggling families’.
We have committed funding, work in kind, and many work hours from senior employees to the Academy. More importantly, when the Academy opens its doors to 850 pupils in September 2009, we are committed to supporting the new Principal to run and manage a successful school. We intend to do this through our involvement on the Academy’s Trust Board, employee volunteers and community partnerships.
Our support has leveraged in £16 million of Government funding to build a state of the art new building and ICT facilities. This is the largest investment ever made in this community and will provide the young people of Castle View with excellent opportunities for a successful future.
John Cuthbert, Managing Director, and Janet Bridges, Principal Designate of Castle View Enterprise Academy, laying one of the first bricks of the Academy’s new building.
Photo credit: Sunderland Echo.