Our approach to social value ensures that in addition to delivering a brilliant building for our customers, we also leave a lasting legacy in their communities by improving the wellbeing of the people who live there.
Our people, customers, and supply chain partners as well as the organisations and groups in the wider community all form part of our social value considerations. We listen carefully to understand their needs and plan where we can have the most impact on their wellbeing.
Delivering for our communities
We are committed to give back to the community and build lasting relationships with local groups, organisations and charities to make a difference in the communities we work in.
In 2024, 100% of Willmott Dixon projects had social value plans that were co-created with the customer. This makes sure our work is focused on community need and positively impacts people living around our project sites.
Often our customers require support for people with careers and employability training. Details of the work we do to support people into good careers can be found in the supporting careers section of this report.
Sometimes there are local challenges where we choose to support, either in response to the community or customer as part of a project, completed as part of our trainee challenge, or championed by individuals within the business.
Our community projects
We transformed a former working men's club in Kirklees, Top Club, as part of our ongoing commitment to leave a positive legacy, benefitting people in the community for years to come (below). While delivering West Yorkshire Police’s flagship new district headquarters, we worked with our local supply chain and local emergency services volunteers to create a new community hub. In collaboration with Local Services 2 You, a group of community businesses in Kirklees, the renovated facility provides a centre of education, digital technology, culture, and heritage for local people.
After attending a Solent Careers Hub event, we learned about the Lordshill Youth Project, an outstanding initiative in Southampton that gives young people important life skills to build their confidence, resilience and independence. However, its home, the Zoe Braithwaite Centre, needed a complete revamp.
We stepped in to lead a team of volunteers to transform the facilities over a four-week period. This included adding new electrics, toilets and kitchen so they complied with current safety standards, as well as fixing walls, emptying gutters and providing complete redecoration to improve the centre’s facilities for everyone to benefit from. This work saved the Lordshill Youth Project thousands of pounds, which it can instead spend on club-based sessions that include everything from crafts to sport as well as hosting holiday clubs where young people learn to prepare and eat healthy food (below).
Councillor Alex Winning, Cabinet Member for Children and Learning, Southampton County Council, said: "The Lordshill Youth Project is an amazing initiative. Having a space to meet with friends that is dry, warm and welcoming can make a huge difference to a young person. When that space is also a place to access support, advice or counselling it can become a lifeline. We are incredibly grateful to Willmott Dixon and all of their sub-contractors for their expertise and support in helping to update the space so it can continue for the next 26 years.”
At our Lawrence Weston Housing Scheme in Bristol, we partnered with youth and community charity, Ambition Lawrence Weston, to make a tangible difference in the community (below). Our legacy project gave a makeover to Ridingleaze High Street, with Willmott Dixon people donating 194 hours to give the high street and community playpark a summer makeover, repainting bollards, play equipment and brickwork in the park. Our supply chain partners got stuck in too, Bristol Waste renewed all the litter bins along the high street with Ambition Lawrence Weston litter picking and building three new planters for fresh flowers all making a positive visual impact.
A local resident said: “Thank you for painting all the bollards, it has made a huge difference. It’s improved the look of the street and added a real splash of colour to the area.”
Willmott Dixon's Trainee challenge
We endeavour to combine our social value activities with our ambitions to support and enhance the natural environment. The Willmott Dixon Trainee Challenge see trainees given £500 of seed funding to lead a community project aligned with the company’s Now or Never sustainability strategy.
A team of volunteers led by then management trainee Chris Wall-Hayes, now Assistant Project Manager with Willmott Dixon, we helped revitalise 500 metres of pathway around Fleet Pond in Hampshire for the benefit of all visitors to the nature reserve (below). Donations and contributions saw total fundraising top £52,000, enabled the team of 63 volunteers to update pathways, signage, and improving overall accessibility.
Connecting people with nature
In 2024, we completed a two-year project at Rochdale Infirmary where we have supported NorthCare Charity to create an outdoor space for patients on the dementia ward.
Our team from the Midlands volunteered at a Wild Work Day at Attenborough Nature Reserve over the summer. Working with Nottingham Wildlife Trust, the team helped clear an invasive plant species, Himalayan Balsam (below).
We also volunteered with Forestry England at Philips Park, Manchester (below). Our team got stuck into coppicing, cutting back willow and other trees.
Fundraising for charity
Giving back and supporting those most vulnerable in our society is part of our DNA at Willmott Dixon. Our company’s charitable works were mentioned by Peter Willmott as far back as our 1977 report and accounts.
Across 2024, our IT team led a year-long fundraising campaign for the Garden House Hospice in North Hertfordshire. Events including bake sales, quizzes, raffles, sponsored walks, marathons, a summer fun day and an IT tuck shop raised over £9,500.
A spokesperson for the hospice said: "We can’t thank you enough for raising such an incredible amount of money for the Hospice during your year as charity managers at the company.
"Thanks again for all your brilliant support. It means the world to us here at the Hospice.”
Prioritising mental health
We recognise that we also have a duty to support the mental health of our people and those in the wider construction industry. Our people, and those in our supply chain can access training and support services. All our sites have mental health first aiders and we actively support mental health first aider training in the wider industry.
We also work with partners to support mental health in the communities where we work.
For our project at The Royal Sussex Hospital, in Brighton, Willmott Dixon Interiors supported the Zen Project to deliver twelve wellbeing sessions for 126 NHS staff at different hospitals within the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. The sessions were focused on helping staff find time in their busy day to reduce stress levels, manage anxiety and increase energy.
In 2024, we have supported mental health charity Mind by providing pro-bono support to help reach their goal of becoming net zero by 2050. This partnership not only helped Mind move towards their environmental goals, but also raised awareness of the mental health challenges within the construction industry.
We also participate in the annual Pagabo Feelgood Games, which brings our industry together for a day of sports to mark Mental Health Awareness week.