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Our community
A positive impact on people and places across the UK.
We believe in supporting the communities where we operate
We operate as a responsible landlord bringing positive impact for both local residents and wider communities.
Spotlight on London
UK’s only special needs yoga centre
The Maha Devi Yoga Centre in our Stapleton House, Holloway Road, London, provides subsidised and free sessions for children with disabilities. The charity’s lease enables it to unlock emergency funding from the National Lottery, Sport England, and the London Community Response Fund so it could continue to operate during the pandemic.
UK’s only special needs yoga centre is based in one of our flagship London properties.
A yoga therapy charity working with children and adults with special needs and life limiting conditions is based at our Stapleton House property in London.
Back in 2017, Unite Students in partnership with Islington Council, utilised a planning stipulation to incorporate a community space within its new Holloway Road accommodation. We wanted to find an organisation that would bring direct benefit to the local community.
Following a successful tender process, MahaDevi secured the premises and relocated from their previous home, into our much larger premises that we specifically outfitted for their client’s needs
The centre itself provides heavily subsidised therapy to children and adults with special needs often working with hospices to provide yoga therapy to children with life limiting conditions and end of life care. More than 100 yoga therapy sessions are now delivered weekly across three flexible spaces, including one-to-one sessions, tailored to suit specific conditions and individuals. Waiting lists have been substantially shortened due to the larger space facilitating more therapy sessions for both current and new patients.
In addition, the centre has now been able to create a fund which helps to subsidise sessions for families on a low income, making them affordable to all. 228 sessions were provided via this fund over the past year. The organisation has been able to avoid an increase in session prices (already priced at less than half the cost of the national average for this type of session) over the past three years.
The centre also has close links with the student community living in the adjacent property. The centre now has 25 students attending classes on a weekly basis. Several of these students have volunteered along with other members of the community to help redecorate the studio spaces, helping to achieve one of the key objectives for this initiative to provide a genuine way of integrating the students with the local community.
Ben Eydmann, MahaDevi manager, said:
“It was becoming increasingly difficult to run safe spaces for people [where we were before].
“We could never have known until we moved here what would happen: it’s just growing and growing in terms of being a community hub.”
Spotlight on Birmingham
Volunteering and canal cleans
Unite Students volunteers at our Selly Oak, Birmingham property partnered with the Canals Trust and the University of Birmingham to create volunteering opportunities for employees and students who regularly work together to clean up the canal and surrounding area to provide a safer, cleaner and more engaging environment for local residents and students.
Volunteers dredge canal and clear tow path in Birmingham
Unite Students’ volunteers helped dredge a canal and clear a tow path in Selly Oak, Birmingham – removing shopping trolleys, bicycles, golf trolleys and much more.
It came after Unite Students opened its second building in Selly Oak, home to the University of Birmingham (UoB) campus and student accommodation. Demand for student housing greatly outstrips supply in this area.
The team partnered with the Canals Trust and UoB to create volunteering opportunities. Employees and students worked to clean up the canal and surrounding area to provide a safer, cleaner and more engaging environment for local residents and students.
Since opening in September 2019, Unite has invested more than £21,000 into the local area and community. It is hoped the canal dredging and tow path clearance will encourage more students to adopt greener methods of transport between their accommodation and university. Unite has also offered financial support to the Lapal Canal Trust to support the reshaping of part of the canal to make it safer and more accessible.
Victoria Simmons, Unite’s Area Manager in Birmingham, said:
“Our top priority is keeping our students safe and providing a brilliant experience; we want to extend this to the local community in the areas surrounding our student home. Working closely with the University of Birmingham and local charities, we are working to make a positive impact that benefits a wide range of people. We look forward to continuing this work going forwards, bringing in more student involvement to help with their integration into the local community and spread these efforts even further.”
Spotlight on Bristol
Supporting young people and the homeless
We provide a multi-agency youth homeless prevention hub run by Bristol Youth MAPs and other agencies, with fully renovated and fitted rooms. We also provide a city-centre office and funding for a mental health worker for Bristol’s Street Intervention Service, tackling the root causes of anti-social behaviour.
We're working closely with Streetwise, a charity in Bristol which supports the homeless and drug users, to provide and fit out an office and meeting space for Streetwise and funded an additional full time ‘street beat’ worker.
We have a special relationship with the city of Bristol and the local community built over three decades and provide extensive support to local organisations particularly those working with young people and the city’s homeless population.
As the place where our company was started and where our head office is still based, for 30 years we have been working with the local community on a number of projects in Bristol.
Each year our employees at South Quay House nominate and vote for a local charity partner to support. Over the past three years we have worked with three different charities supporting young people in the city.
Through our property at Nelson House, we provide a multi-agency youth homeless prevention hub run by Bristol Youth MAPs and other agencies, with fully renovated and fitted ground floor rooms at a significantly reduced rent. We also provide a city-centre office and funding for a mental health worker for Bristol’s Street Intervention Service, tackling the root causes of anti-social behaviour.
Other initiatives we have sponsored include sponsoring Bristol Pride for five years and Better Bristol, part of Bristol 24/7
We are working closely with Streetwise, a charity in Bristol which supports the homeless and drug users. We have provided Streetwise with office space and are funding a full-time employee.
Over the past few years the impact of homelessness in Bristol has been felt by our teams, students, and local communities with regular instances of anti-social behaviour. So we are supporting Streetwise, an organisation with expert knowledge and experience around homelessness, to tackle anti-social behaviour through a multi-agency initiative,
Our support has provided and fitted out an office and meeting space for Streetwise and funded an additional full time ‘street beat’ worker. In the first four months of this position being filled, four clients have successfully completed an alcohol detox programme and 214 members of the street community have engaged in a methadone treatment programme.
We have food and stock donation stations in every property
Since 2017 we have worked with the British Heart Foundation and our students and employees are encouraged to donate unwanted items instead of sending to landfill.
in donations to date.
in CO2 gas emissions to date.
materials from landfill to date.
Economic value
By helping to meet the growing demand for student accommodation, we create jobs locally, both during construction and during the entire lifecycle of a property. Students spend with local businesses which gives local economies a boost. The range of facilities available for local people is also enhanced as a result of the spending power of a vibrant student population.
Social value
We work hard to have a positive impact on local people and communities across the UK. We have established ‘community spaces’ within our properties which are used by charities and non-for-profit organisations providing services locally for a peppercorn rent. A great example of this is our Maha Devi project, a yoga therapy charity for children and adults with special needs in our Stapleton House property in London.
To drive our responsible business objectives we partner with the National Union of Students (NUS). We operate the award-winning Green Impact programme which we call Positive Impact, an engagement model encouraging positive social, sustainable and environmental behaviours.
Environmental value
The amount of rubbish generated and left by students is a huge concern for residents particularly at checkout times. Through our partnership with the British Heart Foundation we minimise this through a donation programme for unwanted items. These are sold and the proceeds used for life-saving research, with more than £1million raised to date. We also encourage unwanted food to be donated to local foodbanks.
Resolving issues
We understand that some local residents may feel uneasy about students moving into their local area. We do all we can to alleviate any concerns from pre-planning stage through the whole lifecycle of a property. With 30 years of sector experience, we have a number of initiatives in place which prevent anti-social behaviour before it starts.
Our Home Charter is designed to create a safe, respectful and harmonious environment for students and local communities and was updated to reflect the changing situation with Covid-19. This sets out what we expect of students and what communities can expect from us.
Our award-winning Leapskills programme helps prepare students for the leap to independent living.
Meeting the needs of local communities
Local residents have easy access to our site teams and emergency contact centre if issues arises. For example, at Parade Green, Oxford following negative feedback from residents, we put an engagement plan in place which involved the appointment of a community champion.
We also work closely with our local communities to tackle local issues. For example, we have a special relationship with the city of Bristol and the local community. We provide extensive support to local organisations particularly those working with young people and the city’s homeless population. Each year our employees at South Quay House nominate and vote for a local charity partner to support. Over the past three years we have worked with three different charities supporting young people in the city.
Through our property at Nelson House, we provide a multi-agency youth homeless prevention hub run by Bristol Youth MAPs and other agencies, with fully renovated and fitted ground floor rooms at a significantly reduced rent. We also provide a city-centre office and funding for a mental health worker for Bristol’s Street Intervention Service, tackling the root causes of anti-social behaviour.
Other initiatives we have sponsored recently include sponsoring Bristol Pride for five years and Better Bristol, part of Bristol 24/7.
We are working closely with Streetwise, a charity in Bristol which supports the homeless and drug users. We have provided Streetwise with office space and are funding a full-time employee.
Over the past few years the impact of homelessness in Bristol has been felt by our teams, students, and local communities with regular instances of anti-social behaviour. So we are supporting Streetwise, an organisation with expert knowledge and experience around homelessness, to tackle anti-social behaviour through a multi-agency initiative,
Our support has provided and fitted out an office and meeting space for Streetwise and funded an additional full time ‘street beat’ worker. In the first four months of this position being filled, four clients have successfully completed an alcohol detox programme and 214 members of the street community have engaged in a methadone treatment programme.
The value we create
Our operational teams are active in their communities through our Company-wide volunteering programme.
We relaunched our Positive Impact programme in 2022, which includes awards for projects undertaken by employees aimed at delivering measurable benefits in their local communities. We also engage actively with local stakeholders for our development projects to ensure the design of our buildings, public spaces and community facilities meets their needs.
Key issues
• Trust and transparency
• Land use
• Local investment and job creation
How we engaged
Our operational teams are active in their communities through our Company-wide volunteering programme.
We relaunched our Positive Impact programme in 2022, which includes awards for projects undertaken by employees aimed at delivering measurable benefits in their local communities. We also engage actively with local stakeholders for our development projects to ensure the design of our buildings, public spaces and community facilities meets their needs.
Value creation in 2021
• Employment for 1,500 people in local communities
• Committed to build c.2,000 beds of new student accommodation in our communities
• Invested £3 million in initiatives to reduce our environmental impact
• 296 hours of employee volunteering in the year
Priorities for 2022
In 2022, we are developing a long-term community engagement strategy, which ensures greater ongoing engagement with local stakeholders from the development stage through to operations. This will focus on promoting healthy and economically viable communities, while increasing transparency