A strategic approach
By their nature, our projects are often amongst the largest of their kind in each area where we work. It is particularly important that their planning and implementation are carried out in a strategic, connected and well-communicated way. This enables a greater likelihood of success and presents us and our partners with numerous ways to add value through better co-ordination of activities. We always contribute to wider civic strategies and take voluntary roles on local boards etc. We believe that as long term stakeholders in the places we work, we must make a greater contribution to the success of those places and are always open to new ways of doing this.
Local economic benefit and national efficiencies
We aim to keep as much of the investment we make within local economies as we can realistically do. This is an aspiration we share with most of our public partners and so we are comfortable agreeing to challenging targets for local buying, employment and training. We also work very closely with colleges and schools to promote the construction and related industries and help training providers to understand the range and scale of opportunity we will create on each of our projects. We hold events for local suppliers and are very proud of our achievements in securing business for local companies on each of our projects. We are equally proud of the efficiencies we can gain through national supply agreements.
Open engagement and communication
We believe that openness and honesty are fundamental building blocks for success. Excellent communication of our proposals and activities help people gain a better understanding of what we are trying to achieve and enables them to contribute in many ways to our shared aims. We are always very open to communication from everyone who feels some impact from our projects, be they individual residents or local MPs. We always try to do what we say we will do – and in the occasional cases where we slip up, we are not afraid to hold our hands up and accept responsibility where it is due.
Community engagement
We have a great deal of experience of community engagement and community initiatives through both our shareholders. We are always keen to give people who are very local to our projects the opportunity to scrutinise and review our progress against criteria agreed in advance. These may cover a wide range of activities beyond simply development itself, and can include: training and employment opportunities, local purchasing, contributions to improving local crime incidence, improved accessibility, and many others. We also work closely with schools – for example we engage with students on local history projects.
Our builder
Our building work is all carried out by Lovell, one of the best known housing constructors in the country. We take advantage of their wealth of experience and resources, of their huge buying power and of the wider resources within the Morgan Sindall Group.