Our commitment to deliver social value alongside our customers’ projects ensures we leave a lasting legacy. We listen to the needs of our customers and local stakeholders to ensure that our projects create meaningful social, economic, and environmental benefits for local people and communities.
Collaboration is key to how we work. By working closely with customers, supply chain partners, social businesses, charities, and other organisations – we can achieve more than we can on our own.
Well ahead of his time, nearly 50 years ago, Peter Willmott, our former Chairman, described Willmott Dixon as a people-orientated business with a responsibility to make society a better place, beyond the buildings we deliver for customers. Peter sadly passed away in January 2024, but his vision and the principle of ‘purpose beyond profit’ are deeply embedded in our company culture and reflected in the way we work. In honour of his legacy and his commitment to purpose-driven business, the company’s charitable arm, formerly the Willmott Dixon Foundation, was renamed the Peter Willmott Foundation in 2024.
Our social value activities in 2024:
- 100% of our projects implemented social value plans which were co-created with our customers.
- 92% of our social value programmes were stated as having a high impact, by the people they were supporting.
- Over £410m social return on investment achieved in the year.
- 80% of our people took part in social activities in 2024.
- We directly supported 64 people who were furthest from the job market to progress into sustainable employment: £5.3m spent through social businesses in 2024.
As a company with a purpose beyond profit, we use the Government's social value model to guide our business practices. We identify, measure, and monitor the social, economic, and environmental impacts of our projects, beyond just the financial bottom line, to help the people and businesses in our communities to thrive.
We pride ourselves on accurate reporting that truly reflects our positive impact on the people and communities we work with. We are one of the only contractors to conduct regular internal audits and have our data externally verified. We also assess the impact of our activities using qualitative feedback assessment and social return on investment accounting. One of the methods we use is the externally verified TOMs system (Themes Measures and Outcomes) proxy values. Our data ensures that:
- We accurately report our performance against the commitments that we have made to our customers and their communities.
- We drive year-on-year improvements towards our 2030 ambitions.
Our 2030 ambitions
Click on the links at the top of the page to find out more about our progress towards our 2030 ambitions.