Lloyds Banking Publishes its Helping Britain Prosper Plan Update

Lloyds Banking Group has published its latest Helping Britain Prosper Plan update as part of its 2015 Responsible Business suite of communications. The Plan is the Group’s response to some of the biggest social and economic challenges facing the UK. The Group understands it can use its scale, reach and influence to address these issues through meaningful, measurable and stretching targets.

“The Helping Britain Prosper Plan contributes to rebuilding trust in our Group and our sector, strengthening colleague pride in our support for the UK economy and society.”
António Horta-Osório, Group Chief Executive, Lloyds Banking Group
 
In line with an integrated approach to reporting, this year, the Helping Britain Prosper Plan update is again published at the same time as the Annual Report and Accounts. Together with a full overview of Responsible Business in the Annual Report, the Prosper Plan update and further online Responsible Business content provides a detailed picture of the Group’s approach. The Group has again aligned its reporting to GRI G4 and conducted a full materiality review with a wide range of stakeholders, including customers, colleagues and opinion formers, to inform the content of the reporting suite.

2015 Helping Britain Prosper Plan performance highlights include:

· Achieving the commitment to help 1 in 4 first time buyers; lending more than £11bn to more than 79,000 first time buyers

· 31% of senior roles are now held by women; putting the Group track to achieve 40% by 2020

· 320,000 hours of volunteering were delivered by colleagues to help community organisations and charities

· £17m donated to the four independent corporate Foundations to tackle disadvantage across the UK and Channel Islands. The Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales is the UK’s largest corporate foundation.

· An additional £1m of funding given to support the important work of credit unions

· More than 11,000 colleagues are now helping people and businesses improve their digital skills. The Group is on track to achieve the target of 20,000 colleague digital champions by the end of 2017. 

The Helping Britain Prosper Plan, which was launched in 2014, was always intended to keep pace with Britain’s changing needs, so as a result, in late 2015 a full review of the areas of focus and targets was conducted. Consequently, the number of metrics has reduced, making them simpler and more focused in three key areas; helping people, businesses and communities to prosper. The Plan is focused more on measuring the positive outcomes it achieves, not just its reach. New targets have been developed in areas such as providing more funding support for social housing, creating more external advanced manufacturing apprenticeships as a result of £1 million a year in funding and helping more consumers plan and save for retirement.

Sara Weller, Independent Director and Chair of the Responsible Business Committee commented:
“Britain doesn’t stand still and our Plan needs to evolve to stay relevant. Consequently, we are refocusing our goals, targeting where we can make the biggest positive difference and setting even more stretching and measurable targets”.
 
For more information
www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/RB
www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/ProsperPlan

Media contacts
Heather Scott 
Helping Britain Prosper Media Relations Team, Corporate Media,
Lloyds Banking Group
Telephone: 07770 643840
 
Laura Brodkin
Media Relations Manager,
Lloyds Banking Group
Telephone: 07786 335317