Our social contribution

We believe that people make places and that those people shouldn’t be defined by where they were born or live, or by any barriers they may face.

Over the years we’ve developed our four community programmes to support disadvantaged people into employment, create opportunities for young people, enable our employees to champion causes that are important to them, and engage with local charities.

Where possible, we want to quantify the difference we’re making by calculating the social value. We’re sharing these figures, along with some highlights from our community work in our social contribution report.

 
£3.2m 

total social value created through our community programmes in 2018

 
£1.3m 

social value generated with our criminal justice charities, since 2015

Providing a direct route into work for all

Across the country, we create job opportunities for people who might be facing challenges or additional barriers to getting into work. This includes ex-offenders and prisoners, people at risk of or experiencing homelessness, disadvantaged young people and the long-term unemployed.

In 2011, we set a target to help a total of 1,200 disadvantaged people to secure jobs by 2020 through our Community Employment Programme. We’re really pleased that we exceeded that target in 2018, thanks to the passion and hard work of our partners.

It’s an incredible thing to give people a second chance to turn around their lives and above all to help people into employment, with all that means for personal and family lives, our communities, and ultimately for the whole of our society."

Rory Stewart MP

Prisons Minister, speaking at the launch of our new Aerial Window Cleaning Academy in HMP Isis

Inspiring the next generation

We believe everyone should have the opportunity to have a great career, regardless of who you are and where you come from. We engage with schools and expert delivery partners in the communities where we work, to inspire the next generation, bridge the skills gap and enable equal access to opportunities.

 
1,374 

young people have taken part in our programme since 2015

 
88% 

of students said they feel more prepared for the labour market

 
95% 

of students improved their teamwork skills

Since 2017, 111 young women from London schools have taken part in our Build Your Future programme, which encourages girls to consider a career in the property and construction industry.

To give young people more confidence and boost their skills for the working world, we host enterprise challenges at Westgate in Oxford, Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth and, in the coming year, White Rose in Leeds. We task local students to design and brand a product and present their ideas to a panel of business experts – and we’re always so inspired by their creativity.

Donating time and resources where we can have the biggest impact

At Landsec, we encourage our employees to volunteer their time to support our charity, education and employment partners, while also empowering them to donate their expertise and skills to causes that are important to them.

In 2018, our brilliant employees volunteered 2,086 hours, or almost 90 days, to support our programmes. Our people have helped boost the employability skills of prisoners and ex-offenders, they’ve prepared and served food to people experiencing homelessness, and collaborated with our partners to deliver community benefit projects.

 
£163k 

social value created by volunteering

 
33% 

of social value created has been through our support for people inside prison and on release

 
£3m 

donations to charities and community organisations since 2015

Looking ahead

Since 2015, we’ve generated a total social value of £9.4 million through our community programmes and partnerships.

But we believe there is always more that can be done to ensure everyone has the chance of a bright and successful future, so we’ve set a new corporate commitment:

Our aim is to create £25m of social value by 2025 through our community programmes across the UK.

This will ensure our social contribution will continue to be long-lasting and impact the lives of people in our communities now and in years to come.

Read the full report for yourself