Blogs

The theme for this year’s Black History Month is Proud to Be; at WPA we can’t think of a better message to get behind. On a personal level we hope that our colleagues, partners, customers, and suppliers all feel proud of who they are and their heritage – and that they can express it in the inclusive environment we strive for as part of LHC.

As we are all aware social value is a wide-ranging topic which has become more prevalent in the public sector since the inception of the Social Value Act (2012). The squeeze on public sector budgets has exacerbated the need for social value to help generate the desired value for money outcomes.

With the many challenges and pressures facing the housing market today – and in particular those faced by the social housing sector – it’s time for providers to start exploring new solutions.

Take up of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is slower for the social sector than amongst private companies, but mounting and almost overwhelming issues demand that all possible avenues are investigated.

All workplaces can benefit from the positive effects of a culture of diversity and inclusion, they are well documented with increases in productivity, creativity, and profits – the key message that many of these metrics miss is that at the heart of these numbers people exist. At the core of it, when your employees feel happy, comfortable, and safe to be themselves they perform better.

You will have read a lot about modern methods of construction (MMC). You may have even investigated where you can incorporate it into your plans. But if you haven’t introduced it to any of your projects yet, now’s the time, thanks to a significant development in government policy, says John Skivington, Group Director of LHC, the contracting authority for SWPA.

Paul Dawson, group technical manager at LHC; the contracting authority for SWPA, looks at the runaway demand for the latest Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund grants and explains why public-sector led programmes to transform the energy performance of our buildings are the quickest route on the road to net zero.