THE UNITE GROUP PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2024 94 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE Great Place to Live Board’s governance role Link to principal risk What the Board did in 2024 and its decision-making Safety, health and wellbeing: Governance to ensure the health, safety, wellbeing and security of our customers is paramount Throughout 2024, fire safety and security remained priorities. Operational risk Major health and safety incident in a property or a development site Read more p58 The Board reviews the safety measures in place for our students, visitors and employees, as well as contractors at our development sites, at each Board meeting. Fire safety: the Board and the Health & Safety Committee review and challenge our fire safety programme, a critical part of our health and safety strategy. The Board is committed to the business being a leader in fire safety standards through a proactive, risk- based approach embedded across the business and ensuring that students and our employees are kept safe. The Board also oversees our cladding remediation programme and related spending. The Board and Health & Safety Committee review and monitor our implementation of The Building Safety Act 2022, which has been fully embedded into day-to-day working of the business. Security: the safety of our students and employees is paramount and through oversight of the Board and the Health & Safety Committee, we continued to progress with the full review of security across the entire estate and implement additional security measures where needed. Planned improvements to security will continue into 2025. Read more in the Health & Safety Committee Report p108 Ensuring our product is affordable and provides good value-for- money for our customers. Market risks Demand reduction: driven by value-for-money/affordability Read more p57 Board analysis of the Higher Education accommodation sector, and ensuring we continue to offer an affordable and value-for-money product. Board analysis of our customer offer and how we service undergraduate first-year students through lettings to universities under nomination agreements. Also, considering the opportunities to tailor our customer proposition to better meet the needs of returning students seeking greater independence and postgraduate and international students who may be willing to pay a premium for a higher level of service. Board oversight of the refurbishment of our pilot purpose-built build-to-rent property in Stratford, East London. This pilot will test our operational capability to extend our accommodation offer to young professionals and retain them as customers as they move on to the next stage in their lives. Read more about Operations review p24 Governance to ensure our best-in-class operating platform delivers for our customers and university partners. Market risks Supply and demand Read more p57 Through our direct engagement with Vice Chancellors and other levels of Management within universities, the Board is able to take into account the views of these stakeholders, as well as monitoring and measuring our performance. During 2024, Board oversight of the launch of the new customer app and website, which includes features such as flat chat, property updates, access to 24/7 wellbeing and service support. The Board also had oversight of the performance of our operating platform and continued improvements. Read more about Operations review p24 Read more about Stakeholder engagement p90 Ensuring our safe and secure promise extends to keeping our customers’ and employees’ personal data safe and secure. Technology risk Information Security and Cyber threat Read more p61 Board review of our technology and information security and its governance. IT security, in particular cyber risks, were considered during 2024 in both Board and Audit & Risk Committee reviews. BOARD ACTIVITIES continued GOVERNANCE