How housebuilders can have a social impact and improve the wellbeing of communities - Mark Burley

The social value team at Keepmoat, Yorkshire East has recently been recognised for our work helping to build a brighter future for inmates at HMP Hull. Projects like this can provide disadvantaged groups with opportunities to engage in activities which benefit communities, and enhance employability and work skills.

We coordinated the project in partnership with Hull City Council and Hull Citywide Consortium, with the aim of reducing site waste by providing old pallets to be upcycled into planters so that the inmates can gain essential joinery skills with the aim of progressing into sustained employment, whilst also meeting the sector’s growing skills gap. The planters are donated to a local charity, EMS, which works with schools and local residents to educate them on how to grow their own food produce, reducing food poverty and improving mental wellbeing.

A key part of what we do is considering innovative ways of creating a sense of community, through the delivery of employment skills and opportunities, and new homes of mixed tenures for people who need them. The communities that are regenerated and developed, in turn become healthy and sustainable hubs that complement existing local areas and effectively integrate with neighbouring communities.

As one of the UK’s leading partnership housebuilders, we understand the importance of engaging with key stakeholders, including local authorities. Our partnership model supports us in revitalising communities and having a positive, transformative impact on the people who live there. We are particularly keen to use local subcontractors and suppliers so that there is real economic growth in an area via a circular economy. By working together and aligning with partner’s objectives, particularly when it comes to accelerated delivery, social value, sustainability and design quality, we’re in a strong position to build successful, mixed tenure developments that provide high-quality homes in well-designed and well-connected neighbourhoods.

Sustainable initiatives that are incorporated into housebuilding can also have a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of communities. By working together as an industry, we can improve the fabric standards of our homes and focus on bringing lasting change to home design, people, and communities to improve economic, environmental and social outcomes.

Initiatives that encourage biodiversity can also improve the environment and support the building of sustainable and healthy communities.

By creating safer, more sustainable places for people to live and establishing partnership models, homebuilders will be contributing to a healthy life and creating places that drive positive outcomes for communities and the environment for generations to come.

Mark Burley is social value and partnership manager at Keepmoat Homes Yorkshire East.