The Quoted Companies Alliance Corporate Governance Code (the QCA Code) ensures a worthwhile, effective, and flexible governance model. It encourages positive engagement between the Company and all its stakeholders. Good governance is one of the foundations of a sustainable corporate growth strategy.

The QCA Code is constructed around ten broad principles. The appropriate application of these principles will ensure that good governance practices are in place.

This page was last updated on 18th March 2024, at which point the Group updated to comply with the QCA code published in 2023.

The 10 principles of the QCA code

Below we have outlined the 10 principles of the QCA code together with a brief description of how we apply them.

1. Establish a purpose, strategy and business model which promote long-term value for shareholders.

Our business model, purpose and strategy are clearly defined and explained in our Annual Report.

2. Promote a corporate culture that is based on ethical values and behaviours.

Recruiting an engaged and motivated team and developing a positive, ethical corporate culture remains a priority for the business. A huge part of the Group’s success has been due to our people who support the delivery of our purpose, strategy, and business model. We continue to invest in our team, in a carefully controlled manner, to ensure a balance between growth, cost control and service delivery as the Group expands. We will continue to invest in growing our team to take advantage of the market opportunity. We continue to strengthen our senior management team to help with the challenges that rapid growth brings for a company of our size. This team have wide experience of sales, marketing, finance, human resources, IT, and energy industry operations in larger corporates that reflect best practice. This has had a positive impact on the culture of the business. This investment will ensure that the Group maintains high standards of customer care and ethics as well as adhering to stringent industry regulations.

We conduct regular employee surveys to ensure that we are delivering against our corporate culture objectives. Our ethics and corporate standards form a part of everything we do, starting with our employee handbook and into our policies including our whistleblowing policy, in which staff may notify management or human resources or a non-executive of any concerns regarding suspected wrongdoing or dangers at work, and anti-bribery and corruption policy, setting out the behaviours we expect and encourage from our employees.

3. Seek to understand and meet shareholder needs and expectations.

The Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer regularly meet with institutional shareholders to foster a mutual understanding of objectives. In particular, an extensive programme of meetings with analysts and institutional shareholders is held following the announcement of results. Feedback from these meetings and market updates, prepared by the Company’s nominated adviser and broker, are presented to the Board to ensure they understand shareholders’ views.

The Chairman and the other Non-Executive Directors are available to shareholders to discuss strategy and governance issues. The Directors encourage the participation of all shareholders, including private investors, at the annual general meeting. The Annual Report, which includes the Company’s financial accounts is published on this website and can be accessed by shareholders.

4. Take into account wider stakeholder interests, including social and environmental responsibilities, and their implications for long-term success.

We have mechanisms in place to collect regular feedback from a range of stakeholders. We conduct regular surveys of employees to understand the issues that are important to them and to track their engagement over time. We conduct an ongoing customer satisfaction survey allowing us to track customer satisfaction levels and Trustpilot scores as well as more detailed feedback. Ad hoc research is conducted where more in-depth exploration is required.

The Group is a licensed gas, electricity, and water supplier, and therefore has a direct regulatory relationship with the various regulatory bodies within the industry, in particular Ofgem and OFWAT. If the Group fails to maintain an effective relationship with these regulatory bodies and comply with its licence obligations, it could be subject to fines or to the removal of its respective licences. We also hold relationships with, and form a part of, several key industry bodies. These stakeholder relationships are discussed regularly at board.

Our board strives to ensure that stakeholders are engaged, through various methods set out in principle 3 and as further detailed in the strategic report, including the s172 statement, in the Annual Report.

5. Embed effective risk management, internal controls and assurance activities, considering both opportunities and threats, throughout the organisation.

The Board has identified what it believes to be a sensible and robust approach to opportunity and risk management for a Company of Yü’s size. Risks are managed throughout the Group with regular reviews at functional, Executive Committee, AuditCo and board level.

Our risk management framework and processes are described in our Annual Report.

Maintaining and evolving mechanisms for Internal Controls is a continuous process both within the company and at board level. Risk and control-specific forums report directly into AuditCo. Assurance activities, including external reviews are conducted on a regular basis.

The Company receives regular feedback from its external auditors on the state of its risk management and internal controls.

6. Establish and maintain the board as a well-functioning, balanced team led by the chair.

The structure of our Board of Directors, and those directors who are considered to be independent, together with the detail of the Board committees, may be found on the Board of Directors and Corporate Governance pages on our website. The board is satisfied that it has an appropriate balance between executive, and non-executive directors and independent directors.

7. Maintain appropriate governance structures and ensure that individually and collectively the directors have the necessary up-to-date experience, skills and capabilities.

The corporate governance section of our Annual Report also details the roles and responsibilities of the board of directors. These are drawn from a range of backgrounds, enabling decision-making which draws upon extensive and varied experiences.

The appropriateness of the Board’s structures and processes are reviewed through a formal and regular Board evaluation and effectiveness process led by the SID and Chairman together with other Directors, and these evolve in parallel with the Company’s objectives, strategy, business model and our governance framework.

The diversity of the Board, succession planning and the contributions made by various board members are further detailed in the Corporate Governance section of the Annual Report.

8. Evaluate board performance based on clear and relevant objectives, seeking continuous improvement.

An annual review of the effectiveness of the Board, including succession planning, is conducted through discussions with the Board which are led by the Chairman and SID.

9. Establish a remuneration policy which is supportive of long-term value creation and the company’s purpose, strategy and culture.

Our Annual Report outlines the approach of our Remuneration Committee and policies.

10. Communicate how the company is governed and is performing by maintaining a dialogue with shareholders and other key stakeholders.

The Company communicates progress throughout the year through Regulatory News Service announcements and in more detail in its interim financial statements and annual report and accounts. Results of shareholder votes are made public on the Company’s website after the meetings concerned.

As mentioned above in principle 3, the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer regularly meet with institutional shareholders to foster a mutual understanding not only of the Groups trading performance but also of its governance and corporate culture.

Our Annual Report details our approach to sustainability.