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Playing an active role in local communities
We’re ensuring our actions have a positive impact on the communities and environments around us.
Playing an active role in local communities
We’re ensuring our actions have a positive impact on the communities and environments around us.
- Investment of 1% of profits to social initiatives
- Partnerships with BHF and other charities
- Creating employment within the community and using local suppliers
- Building links between our properties, students, and local communities
- Working with and supporting organisations that have a positive local impact
Being good neighbours
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.
Unite Foundation – helping care and estranged students
The Unite Foundation support talented young people without family support the chance to go to university. Unite Students has invested over £10million to the charity to help cover the accommodation and bills of scholars, covering up to three full years of study.
1% of annual profits invested in social initiatives every year
We are committed to donating c.£2million per annum to social initiatives. Funds are focused on the Unite Foundation, which provides free year-round accommodation for care leavers and estranged students as well as other programmes that support young people.
Meeting the needs of local communities
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 given the footprint of our operations in the city. 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 have included sponsoring Bristol Pride for five years and Better Bristol, part of Bristol 24/7.
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. programme.
Local residents nationwide 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.
Our community
The value we create
Throughout 2022, we've been 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.
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 are 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
Find out more
Tackling climate change
Greener, sustainable buildings
