In partnership with our customers and suppliers, as well as local authorities and community groups, we identify specific needs and areas where our input can have the most positive impact. We use our convening power to bring different voices together and find synergies.
By investing in local training programmes and learning resources we enable local communities around our sites to build the highly valued skills that our industries need, creating powerful talent pools and enhancing career prospects in the areas where we operate.
The physical environment is a key priority, and we are committed to creating quality open spaces around our properties that support biodiversity and the wellbeing of our customers’ staff and the communities in which we operate.
“We aim to make a positive impact wherever we operate, ensuring we create sustainable, high-quality developments that support biodiversity, enhance local environments and champion low carbon growth.”
Neil Impiazzi, Partnerships Development Director
Raising prospects for all
We want to create local employment hubs. We have always facilitated routes to training, mentoring and support, and enabled local people to build and grow new businesses. We are now broadening the scope and scale of these programmes.
Widening access to quality jobs and reaching more parts of the community is a crucial goal in this, and we’re putting into place long-term local investment plans to make it happen.
Supporting local economies
Building close ties to the communities in which we operate creates powerful opportunities for collaboration and local innovation culture.
From small enterprises to industry leaders, we support and showcase our local heroes, enabling them to scale up, learn from one another and connect with local suppliers, partners, community leaders, schools, colleges and higher education establishments.
Life enhancing spaces
Enhancing the space around our buildings means enabling teams and communities to think—and act—outside the box. This ranges from volunteering days to biodiversity ventures and environmental projects to improve (for example) local air quality.
Putting in place infrastructure that facilitates lower carbon transport solutions is also critical, whether that’s through building cycling lanes or including charging points for electric vehicles as standard at our sites.
Case Study: UK Apprenticeships
In 2021 we participated in a UK government scheme to support the London Progression Collaboration’s ‘Reskilling the Recovery’ Campaign, pledging £50,000 to support apprenticeships.
Our funding enabled three young people to move into sustainable, meaningful jobs and with longer-term career progression. We also partner with Langley College in Slough to fund apprenticeships on the Slough Trading Estate. Our Centenary Fund is supporting a Finance (Level 3) apprenticeship at Leicestershire and Rutland Community Foundation.
Through these apprenticeships, talented young people are earning qualifications and finding employment, while small businesses are benefiting from the ability to take them on and build capacity with all of the training fees covered.
image
Communities
From creating training and employment opportunities to developing quality open spaces and biodiversity around our sites, we invest in everyone’s future prosperity.
Communities
image
Nurturing talent
Actively promoting an inclusive and supportive culture is not just the right thing to do, it consistently makes our business stronger, brighter and more resilient.
Nurturing talent