Wednesday 22 March
HOUSEBUILDING MOVES INTO THE COMMUNITY
Did you know that the house building industry donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to good causes last year?
From fundraising for charity and assisting local schools and sports teams to working with the community on planning applications and helping local traders, housebuilders are putting a lot more into the community than just new homes.
Community consultation leads to successful planning applications for Linden
Linden Homes is committed to involving the local community whenever one of its new developments will have a significant economic and social impact on the surrounding area. Many of its current developments have been sought through consultation exercises with local communities, and as a result the company has recently achieved 10 successful planning applications since February.
Linden Homes believes local involvement in the development process achieves a more deliverable and cohesive project. Its consultation exercises involve holding Community Planning Weekends, where local people participate and create a vision for the future of the proposed development. Linden Homes then carries out negotiations and discussions with the authorities to produce a workable scheme that reflects those visions.
George Wimpey helps school reach its full potential
North Baddesley Junior school has received a much needed donation from George Wimpey Southern Counties, to help invest in a new state-of-the-art interactive white board teaching system. Once installed the equipment will put the school at the cutting edge of technology and encourage interactive learning in the classroom. The money donated by George Wimpey will buy a set of scanners to support the new system, and help the school utilise its full potential.
Pupils take on construction challenge with Keepmoat!
Pupils from two North East schools were encouraged to take on a team challenge day as part of an initiative to help future generations into work.
Keepmoat Plc and its operating companies Haslam Homes, Frank Haslam Milan (fhm) and Brammall construction will be working with 300 youngsters in 10 schools countrywide over the next few months, offering a dozen young people the opportunity to explore a career within construction.
The day's events - organised by the Outward Bound Trust - involved pupils from Thornaby School travelling to meet students at Hetton Comprehensive School, where the group of 60 took part in 'ice breaker' and team building exercises with Haslam Homes, fhm and Outward Bound employees.
Lisa Lormor Customer Relations Director at fhm said: "Through this initiative we are giving young people the opportunity to explore the various jobs available within construction."
It's Back to the Floor for Patsy at Persimmon
Persimmon has chosen Marie Curie Cancer Care as its charity partner in 2006 and is hoping to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for the cause, which is why the company has sponsored the inaugural 'Back to the Shop Floor' initiative, which takes place Friday 24 March.
One of the senior executives taking part will be Patsy McLaren, Sales Director for Persimmon's East Scotland region when she will be swapping her business suit for a sales advisor uniform and going back to her roots. She may also be persuaded out on site and could even find herself making the tea for the team!
Patsy said: "There can be no more worthy cause than Marie Curie Cancer Care which is why I didn't hesitate in taking up the challenge. Getting out on site and talking to the home buyers is a great way to stay in touch with what the market wants."
Other Persimmon executives will also be going back to the floor on Friday 24 March.
For further details of the homes offered by the developers named please contact:
Haslam Homes on 0191 487 3800 or www.haslam-homes.co.uk
Linden Homes on 01883 334451
Persimmon Homes on 08459 10 10 11
George Wimpey 01372 370804
Community
This is our chance to shine and show not only what the new homes industry is giving back to local communities but also what a great community it is to work within.
We want you to shout about all the good things you are doing from major charity donations to the little things such as school visits that make a big difference.
How can I get involved?
- You could get in touch with your local school to organise a site visit, demonstrating how a building site works on a day-to-day basis as well as pointing out that it can be an extremely dangerous place if entered unsupervised.
- Schools could also be invited to visit your offices and discover more about other careers within house building such as architecture, marketing, planning etc.
- Explore partnership opportunities with local education and business associations. Organise reciprocal visits and get involved with career fairs and the local community.
- Make the most of your apprentice schemes. Put an apprentice forward for a feature in your local newspaper on the importance of training to their career development and highlight any ‘Pride in the Job’ winners.
- Is today the day to go back to the floor with apprentices to show how you honed your own skills?
- Feature on the importance of traditional trades such as thatching and stone masonry.
- Highlight any of your schemes which are National Urban Forestry Unit, Greenleaf or Tree Council award winners.
- If you are promoting biodiversity in your developments now is the time to make it known. You could draft a short release or even invite a local journalist to come and see for themselves what you are doing on site.
- Follow this up with an annual update press release on improvements to the habitat and/or invite local school children to visit and explore it.
- Embrace wildlife issues e.g. if maintaining badger runs was stipulated within your planning permission, use it as a positive news story to highlight your company’s humanity.
- Adopt a school in your area to work on year long wildlife projects.
- Have you got any mother/daughters or father/sons working for your company? Why not look at the career opportunities of each generation and why they chose the property industry
- Hold a day of local fundraising across your company or ask your staff to volunteer this weekend to give something back to your local communities be it tree planting, helping out at a local charity event or coaching a local sports team
- Let everyone know what you are giving back to the community. Are you able to undertake a case study showing what you have done in relation to schools, football pitches, parks and youth clubs?
- Community consultation – why not link up with a local newspaper or organise an event to find out what the local community really wants and needs in their area?
- Produce a leaflet for site which lets all visitors know what you have been doing in the area over the last twelve months.
- Set up journalist interviews with some of the projects undertaken e.g. the local school which has had computer equipment – what has this meant to the school?
- Are you working with and supporting suppliers in your local community?
- MP/MEP or other local dignitary visits and involvement make great PR – ‘topping out’ ceremonies etc. are ideal photocall opportunities.
- Mini exhibitions – showcase what you do at career fairs or sponsor a local fete or event.
- Invite schools to bury a time capsule onsite.
- Local school competitions or even quizzes – can be used to highlight the dangers of playing on site etc.
- Launch your own award schemes either internally or externally to motivate and promote greater endeavour.
- Record breaking attempts –set your company a non-work related charitable target to strive towards together and reverse the positions of power to allow others to take responsibility for it.
- Why not create your own annual company event to boost company morale?
- Host a ‘Skills from A-Z’ photocall including key staff from apprentices to the CEO.
If you have a press release to upload visit the media zone
