We take our role in society seriously, working to improve the UK’s built environment and delivering lasting change for the communities we work in.

Delivering a legacy of positive social value outcomes in the communities in which we operate is a key part of our strategy. This is the right thing to do as a responsible business and is also an increasingly important priority for our clients.

Management and compliance

Our Sustainability Policy sets out our commitment to assessing sustainability risks and opportunities, and taking appropriate steps to mitigate negative impacts and enhance positive impacts. Our Code of Conduct also explains our approach to being a good neighbour and the requirement to treat all our stakeholders with respect, courtesy and consideration.

We have a range of mechanisms for identifying and managing community impacts. Our project teams undertake a needs analysis with our clients to identify the key priorities in relation to employment, training, SMEs and wellbeing in the local area. This analysis is used to develop bespoke Social Value Plans and Employment and Skills Plans. The outcomes delivered are reported using the Thrive social value platform aligned to the IES (Impact Evaluation Standard) Our approach to community engagement is also overseen by the ESG Committee.

We also take part in the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS), which assesses sites on criteria including being considerate of local neighbourhoods and the public.

1 SLEV (Social and Local Economic Value) is a measure for the social contribution made to society, in particular to the local community, estimated using the National TOMs (Themes, Outcomes, and Measures) Framework. The threshold of 25% was selected based on the SVP’s (Social Value Portal’s) 2021 Social Value Benchmarking Report. The SVP’s analysis of 1,480 UK construction projects completed in the seven years to 2019 identified that the average SLEV as a percentage of project value was 24.67%. In its 2023 report, SVP reported that in 2023, the average SLEV% was 23.6%.

2 The maximum achievable score is 50, if full innovation points are awarded. Our target is to be greater than 39.0, which is the minimum score to achieve the 'Excellent' performance level.

Performance

Social and Local Economic Value

Delivering a legacy of positive social value outcomes is a key part of our strategy. Delivering a legacy of positive social value outcomes is a key part of our strategy. This is the right thing to do as a responsible business and is also increasingly important for our clients. The Procurement Act 2023, which came into effect during the year, and the updated Public Procurement Notice – PPN002 Taking account of social value in the award of central Government contracts, reinforced social value as a priority for public sector clients and confirmed the requirement that a minimum of 10% of the evaluation criteria on public procurement tenders must relate to social value outcomes.

On the 18 projects (2024: 24 projects) over £5m completed during the year, we delivered £1,076m in Social and Local Economic Value (SLEV), with 83% of projects exceeding our benchmark of 25% of project value (2024: 79%).

Considerate Constructors Scheme

The Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) strives to improve the image of the construction industry and leave a positive legacy, by implementing best practice in the areas of community engagement, the environment and workforce wellbeing. CCS scores and benchmarks Construction sites on their positive impact within their locality. We maintained a high score of 43.9 (2024: 42.9) out of 50, outperforming our target and remaining above the industry average of 40.6. 
Our project teams received two Gold, three Silver and 15 Bronze awards at this year’s CCS National Site Awards, reflecting our teams’ ongoing commitment to setting high standards across all areas of site operations.

We are also a member of the CCS Social Impact Group, which has been formed to help standardise social impact, increasing understanding, engagement, and communication of social value for the supply
chain and stakeholders.

Open Doors

We took part in Build UK’s Open Doors initiative again this year, with circa 500 students visiting 17 of our sites. We delivered presentations covering possible career paths in construction and the work we participate in, and gave attendees the opportunity to see how a live site operates, including how we work alongside our supply chain. This forms part of our early careers  commitment and our broader engagement with the communities in which we operate.

Volunteering and charitable donations

One of the most tangible ways in which we create a positive legacy is through our staff and supply chain volunteering their time and resources to support community projects and causes. We encourage all employees to take up to two days of paid leave to undertake voluntary activities.

During the year, our own staff recorded 7,300 hours of volunteering time. As it is difficult to capture all volunteering time, including that of our supply chain partners, we believe the true amount is significantly higher. To embed a volunteering culture, volunteer days are incorporated into our graduate and trainee training programmes. This includes requiring our graduates to sign up to become STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) ambassadors, joining a national network of volunteers who bring real-life examples of STEM careers into schools, colleges, and universities across the UK.

In addition to volunteering hours, we donated time, materials and money to the value of £470,000 (2024: £365,000) to charitable and community causes including CRASH, the UK construction industry charity for the homeless, which we have been a patron of for 26 years.

Mentoring the Next Generation
In September 2024, our mentoring scheme aimed at encouraging the next generation of women into construction welcomed the first cohort of 66 students across five schools. Each student has been paired with one of 36 female mentors from our business for the duration of the three-year programme, which will showcase the vast and rewarding opportunities in the sector. Individuals on the programme will benefit from improving their communication skills for the workplace, matching careers to their interests, and guidance with CV writing and interviewing.

The feedback we have had from students and their teachers is that the workshops are engaging and the students look forward to the sessions. Following the successful first year, we are expanding the programme and have enrolled a further circa 60 students across six schools in the second cohort.