Places for London – Transport for London’s (TfL) property company – is piloting a new business skills training programme for tenants across its estate as part of its commitment to being a responsible and sustainable landlord, encouraging inclusive growth across its estate and building on the extensive support it provided to its tenants throughout the pandemic.
Working with Heart of the City, the new programme, which will take place over the course of a year, will offer up to 40 of Places for London’s tenants the opportunity to undertake responsible business skills training. Tenants participating in the pilot will receive a range of training and support at no cost to themselves.
As one of the capital’s largest landowners, Places for London provides a home to hundreds of businesses across the city, including florists, cafés, construction companies and garages. Located in arches, high streets and stations across London, around 95 per cent of the businesses on Places for London’s estate are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs play a key role in London’s economy, and its reputation as a place of innovation and excitement. However, it can often be a challenge for them to maximise their potential when implementing best responsible business practices, due to a lack of time, resources and expertise.
The new training includes online learning modules, webinars, insight sessions with experts, responsible business health checks and one-to-one sessions with advisors. There will also be opportunities for each business to meet other like-minded tenants from across Places for London’s estate, so they can exchange ideas and learnings as well as potentially collaborate with each other.
As well as learning skills like how to protect mental health and wellbeing within SMEs and understand more about accessibility and inclusion, they will also learn about how they can make a wider impact on their communities too, such as through community investment, volunteering and by learning how to measure their carbon footprint and create a net-zero action plan.
By providing this range of support, Places for London hopes that its tenants will help the capital become a more inclusive and sustainable place, transitioning to net zero carbon, and thrive in their own right. By improving their performance and implementing what they have learnt through the training, it is hoped that the tenants will build on their existing success and continue to play an important role as part of Places for London’s wider estate. In addition to this training, Places for London is continuing to examine the ways it can support London’s SMEs by examining and developing a social value strategy.
Daniel Lovatt, Director of Asset Management at Places for London, said: “We are delighted to be piloting our business skills training programme, working with Heart of the City, which will support our tenants as they strive to become even more sustainable. We strongly believe that it is our role as a landlord to help our tenants succeed and continue to play an integral part of their local communities – when they thrive, we do too.”
Maggie Berry OBE, Director at Heart of the City, said: “Heart of the City is thrilled to be supporting Places for London’s SME tenants through our Foundations for Responsible Business programme, which will help this cohort of businesses get started and advance on their sustainability journey. Navigating the environmental, social and governance (ESG) landscape can be challenging for smaller enterprises, and we’re proud to contribute to Places for London’s forward-thinking strategy by providing practical training support to their SME tenants. We’re looking forward to seeing the positive transformations these SMEs will implement in their workplaces, improving their product and service delivery while contributing positively to society and being a force for good.”
