Nowhere are communities more diverse than in London and it is the Group’s ongoing aim to work closely with the people who live and work where assets are located, as highlighted in the Group’s Business Code of Practice.

Earls Court

• The EC&O Venues Directors host regular residents’ meetings at both Earls Court and Olympia and have a dedicated residents’ page on the website www.eco.co.uk in order to maintain ongoing dialogue with the community.
• Four public consultation exhibitions for the ECOA Masterplan were held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in March 2011 and were attended by over 1,000 people who live in the area.
• Following feedback from these exhibitions, changes were made to the Masterplan. A second series of exhibitions in June showcased these changes and unveiled the proposals for the Seagrave Road site. Over 400 people attended.
• Award-winning project website www.myearlscourt.com continues to be used as an effective tool to engage with local communities, attracting over 20,000 unique visitors in 2011.
• An education project with two local primary schools in Earls Court focused on the past, present and future of the area and environmental issues. Year 6 at Fulham Primary School won a Research Award at Hammersmith & Fulham’s Children’s Parliament for their presentation on regeneration. For the second year running, Capco sponsored the community arts event, The Earls Court Festival.

Covent Garden

• The Covent Garden team continues to build on its strong relationship with the Covent Garden Area Trust. Tenants and local community groups were engaged and updated on the public realm improvements and works to King Street and the Piazza.
• The ‘Take Two’ education project was designed to engage 46 pupils from two schools in Camden and Westminster in crime and community safety issues through digital media.
• The Covent Garden Business Enterprise challenge benefited a total of 550 young people. We also supported Citrus Saturday, an educational initiative by University College London for 13 and 14 yearolds that combined a business skills training programme with experience of selling citrus-themed food and drink at Covent Garden stalls.
• We have always encouraged our contractors to employ local skills and at our Flower Cellars development over 90 per cent of labour was from London boroughs.

Shareholders

• The Executive Directors undertook 97 1:1 meetings with shareholders during 2011. In addition, members of the UK Shareholders Association were invited to a strategy briefing from the Chief Executive and Finance Director.