Case study Improving student wellbeing Our residents can need support at any time of day or night. If they need us, we’re there: we have a 24/7 staff presence, with all employees being trained to carry out wellbeing checks, and an emergency contact centre. However, sometimes a little more support is needed – so, to complement our existing provision, we introduced a student assistance programme during the 2023/24 academic year. Delivered by Health Assured, the assistance programme includes a helpline and webchat that are staffed by clinical professionals all year round, so that our residents can benefit from their expertise. Our proactive support work is also important. As of 2024, we have more Resident Ambassadors – students paid at the National Living Wage to create a community and run events in their building – than ever before, providing our residents with valuable peer support and upskilling the Resident Ambassadors through training and experience. STRATEGIC REPORT TECHNOLOGY ENHANCING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND MARGINS Our technology upgrade programme to enhance customer experience and drive efficiencies delivered significant milestones in 2024 as we launched a new student app and website, opened up new payment methods and launched a new reward and benefit platform for our people. We will deliver new booking, customer service, maintenance and finance platforms over the next two years, which will support our strategic objectives of delivering a Great Place to Live and Work. We expect to incur a further £15 million of costs in 2025 as the programme continues to deliver change. We expect to achieve a payback on our investment through enhanced utilisation of our portfolio and cost efficiencies, which will increase our EBIT margin by around 1% over the medium term. PERFORMANCE REVIEW Operations review continued THE UNITE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2024 28