How we work with you

British Land have a clear policy for approving suppliers prior to work being commissioned. This onboarding process is owned and managed by our Procurement Team and forms a key part of our Procurement Policy. All suppliers must be proposed by an employee of British Land or a third party acting on behalf of British Land.

Our requirements of external suppliers

At British Land we value our suppliers and the contribution they make – we rely on their expertise to deliver our business objectives.​ British Land promotes a fair and inclusive process for assessing suppliers prior to any engagement. This is a staged process which allows us to validate credentials before inviting you to provide goods and/or services. British Land seeks to do business with like-minded organisations with strong organisational values that emphasise collaborative partnerships. To maintain our collaborative ways of working and showcase best practice, we launched our Supplier Excellence Awards in 2022.

Supplier Excellence Awards

At British Land we value our suppliers and the contribution they make – we rely on their expertise to deliver our business objectives.​ British Land promotes a fair and inclusive process for assessing suppliers prior to any engagement. This is a staged process which allows us to validate credentials before inviting you to provide goods and/or services. British Land seeks to do business with like-minded organisations with strong organisational values that emphasise collaborative partnerships. To maintain our collaborative ways of working and showcase best practice, we launched our Supplier Excellence Awards in 2022.

Supplier Excellence Awards

British Land have a clear policy for approving suppliers prior to work being commissioned. This onboarding process is owned and managed by our Procurement Team and forms a key part of our Procurement Policy. All suppliers must be proposed by an employee of British Land or a third party acting on behalf of British Land.

Suppliers are required to complete our supplier assurance process which includes a Corporate Social responsibility, Sustainability, Financial due diligence and Quality questionnaire and where necessary we will also require suppliers to successfully complete our standards based Information Security Assessment.

Suppliers are reminded that any work undertaken prior to completion of the above process will be at the supplier’s risk and may result in payment being withheld.

Our Supplier Code of Conduct sets out the obligations on British Land's suppliers in relation to social, environmental and ethical compliance. This Code is designed to promote safe and fair working conditions and the responsible management of social, ethical and environmental issues in British Land's supply chain.

Paying suppliers and partners promptly and within the agreed payment terms is not only an ethical responsibility but economically beneficial for all parties and the wider economy.

At British Land we believe that speed and certainty of payment and stable cashflow are essential for all businesses to flourish and grow. That is why we have added our signature to the list of companies committed to the ‘Prompt Payment Code’

Invoice Query - If you have an invoice query first of all check out our Supplier Guidance document

If you are unable to find the answer to your question please email us on [email protected]

We want to play our part in promoting responsible business practices.

  • We pay all our directly employed staff a minimum of the Real Living Wage. We strongly encourage all of our suppliers to pay their own and subcontractor parties at or above the real Living Wage.
  • We are signatories of the Prompt Payment Code since 2010 which ensures suppliers and partners are paid promptly and within the agreed payment terms.
  • We actively communicate our social and ethical standards to all our suppliers via our onboarding process, contracts, Supplier Code of Conduct and supplier events. Through our Sustainability Strategy and related initiatives, we leverage our scale and scope to engender more responsible supplier behaviour and practices. This is now explicitly stated within our new 2030 Sustainability Strategy, which highlights the importance we place on responsible business conduct and, specifically, preventing modern slavery.
  • Preventing Modern Slavery - Modern slavery and human trafficking are grave forms of human rights abuses. We are committed to taking steps to prevent both abuses in our business and our supply chain. We have underpinned this commitment through our membership of ‘Unseen - UK’s Business Helpline Portal.

Our Supplier Code of Conduct clearly states our expectations of safe and fair working conditions: we expect our suppliers to operate responsible business practices throughout all operations, including treating and paying people fairly, developing positive relationships with local communities and promoting carbon efficiency. We work closely with our supplier partners to achieve our high social, environmental and ethical standards.

If a supplier working with British Land has concerns over unethical behaviour this should be reported to the British Land Company Secretary at the following email address: [email protected]

Provided that you have left contact details you will receive confirmation and an update of your report within 7 working days.

We ask suppliers to work in a way we believe is best practice to achieve our social, environmental and ethical standards.

We achieve this through:

  • Regular meetings and knowledge sharing workshops with suppliers.
  • Reviewing supply chain sustainability risks.
  • Providing clear guidance for suppliers on social, environmental and ethical matters, such as our Supplier Code of Conduct and Sustainability Briefs. These are available for download here
  • Implementing robust processes, such as our ISO14001 certified Environmental Management System for developments.
  • Requiring key construction suppliers to be accredited through Building Confidence, an industry scheme administered by Achilles. This includes checking the supplier’s financial, safety, environmental, social, ethical, occupational health and quality management systems.
  • Writing key performance indicators into contracts, where appropriate.
  • Our Sustainability Policy documents our commitment to treat our staff and suppliers with fairness, dignity and respect, and to support the protection of internationally-recognised human rights. The Sustainability Policy is available on our external website and on our employee Intranet
  • Local Charter
  • Sustainability Policy
  • British Land has been a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, which promotes absolute respect for human rights, since 2009.
  • We manage dealings with suppliers in a fair, consistent and transparent manner.
  • We are a member of APRES, an Action Programme on Responsible and Ethical Sourcing across the construction industry

Supplier Diversity and Inclusion 

We recognise that innovative problem solving is best approached through diversity of thought and that diversity and inclusion are important for a cohesive supply chain. To grow and be resilient for the future, business must drive and, more importantly, lead action in this area. That’s why we’re actively working with our supply chain to accelerate change.

We encourage open dialogue with our suppliers and partners to create an environment where we can learn from each other and promote diversity throughout the supply chain. During the sourcing process we ask bidders to share with us their approach to diversity and we ask for active examples of inclusive culture and behaviours within their own organisation.