A huge congratulations to the team at Morgan Sindall who have been crowned with the Social Value category Award at this year’s Building Awards for their SCF project at Hackney Britannia Leisure Centre.  A large project comprising a four-storey leisure centre and 1,100-pupil school in a compact inner-city residential space, it put social value at the heart of the scheme, considering from the outset how to reach all sections of the local community, including those most-hardest to reach and vulnerable. The build was as much about lifting the spirits of local Hackney residents caught up by the pandemic as boosting the economic and social economy. This included supporting the Shoreditch Trust, which tackles inequality across Hackney, and many other local grassroots organisations.

One of the most innovative elements of the project was a trial of cargo bike deliveries to reduce CO2 emissions. They are the first contractor in London to do this, making full use of the Transport for London Cycle Super Highway adjacent to the project.

Supporting the project’s success has been its dedicated Community Investment Manager and the creation of a social value bank to calculate the impact generated in monetary terms. They also had a target of 30% of labourers to be sourced locally and 25 three -week work placements on-site throughout the project. 42% of suppliers came from within the borough and over 50% of work experience students were from Hackney. They organised job fairs, which were also attended by GLL, New City College, University of Westminster, K10 apprenticeships and Construction Skills Academy Southwark.

Being environmentally sustainable was paramount and played out with using local tips for exporting excavated ground from the site, reducing mileage for HGV vehicles and the use of local suppliers for importing ground material such as 6F2 or Type 1. They also had a 96% waste diversion from landfill and were the first construction company to use hydrogen floodlights and included two free paws station for dog users.