The spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus continues to dominate the news.  It is causing economic disruption across the globe and since our last communication to you, we have continued to monitor developments closely.

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We wish to reassure you that in respect of the spread of COVID-19 outbreak we are focused on the health and welfare of both our customers and staff, and our ability to continue to support you and your business by managing our services and operations as effectively as possible.  We are therefore writing to share with you some of the specific actions that we have taken.

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Prior preparation

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A robust approach to risk management and operation effectiveness is integral to our business.  For many years, we have run a Business Continuity Plan which identifies how our business can continue to operate in periods of disruption, and which is kept under regular review.

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Operational resilience

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We have invested in technology and infrastructure to ensure that our business is both robust and sufficiently flexible to be able to cope with disruptive events:

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• Our staff have the ability to work from home if required and can remotely access our systems within a secure IT environment.  We are also able to redirect telephone lines to employee mobile phones or IP phones ensuring our published telephone numbers continue to be answered.

• Those staff who might have limited access to a computer at home are provided with a laptop where required

 

Employee and occupier safety

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The health, safety and wellbeing of our staff and occupiers is of paramount importance to us.  We are therefore closely monitoring and implementing official guidelines from the Government and health organisations in respect of COVID-19.  Specific actions taken include:

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• We have carried out a full review to confirm that no member of our staff or our contractors has travelled to higher risk countries within the last 14 days

• We have implemented a requirement that if staff or a family member visits these destinations, they are requested to work from home and not visit the building for 14 days as a precautionary measure

• We have communicated to all staff that if they have flu-like symptoms they should remain at home

• We have encouraged everyone to be able to work from home and have the technology in place to facilitate this

• We have asked staff to reduce business and personal travel where practicable

• Hand sanitisers have been provided at our properties for both staff, occupiers and visitors

• As previously advised, our cleaning teams have been instructed to add to their cleaning specification extra focus on cleaning and sanitising “contact points” around the common parts (door handles, push plates, lift call buttons, WC flushing areas in particular)

 

The coronavirus outbreak is clearly a constantly evolving situation with uncertainty regarding the timescale and extent of impact.  In the meantime, we want to reassure you that we will continue to review and implement service and operational initiatives to minimise the potential impact of coronavirus, in order to support your ongoing business operations.