At Countryside Properties we recognise that development should have positive and lasting impacts on the communities involved. There is therefore much more to creating a sustainable community than planning and building. It is about social interaction between local people, groups and organisations and meeting diverse cultural, spiritual and economic aspirations.
Engaging Residents
To achieve this we engage with local residents and other stakeholders to include them in the process of planning and delivering new and regenerated communities. Indeed, at our urban regeneration schemes we are committed to achieving an enduring transformation of the physical and social environment to create locations of choice. We encourage local people to participate in the management of their community so that they can determine the standards they require. At Greenwich Millennium Village in London a management company, which will ultimately be owned by the residents, is responsible for the long-term management of the Village.
Communication
Early dialogue with stakeholders is highly important in ensuring a better mutual understanding of the development’s objectives and the site’s constraints. This ensures our masterplans reflect community aspirations and concerns. Many of the lessons we have learnt are transferable and are being tailored to local circumstances.
Design Codes
At a number of our proposed new communities we are working with stakeholders to produce Design Codes which are interpreting and articulating the vision of the masterplan, and are helping to shape and develop it. Stakeholder Steering Groups are overseeing the co-ordinated production of the Design Codes and agree both its content and the broad range of detail therein. Design Codes help to achieve a level of certainty for all stakeholders. Feedback has been highly positive and all parties involved have shown their appreciation.
Creating Opportunities
We recognise that, prior to the commencement of some estate regeneration projects, local communities may have experienced high levels of unemployment and related deprivation. Local employment schemes can bring immediate and long lasting benefits to local people and are therefore invaluable.
We have 18 years experience of undertaking Local Labour in Construction (LLIC) schemes on our major estate regeneration projects and currently have seven in operation. We are securing between 20-30% (2006: 20-25%) of our total employment requirements through local people, dependent largely upon the skills of the local workforce and the duration of the project.
A key factor in this is the partnering arrangements we have with our sub-contractors who are employing the local labour. This results in the provision of more secure and sustainable job opportunities. Wherever possible, we also use local suppliers, including the local supply depots of national networks.
Also, our developments comprising a mix of residential, commercial and social uses provide job opportunities for new and existing communities.
A Wider Sense of Responsibility
In addition to giving advice and financial support to local groups and organisations, we actively support the wider community where we are developing. As a result, a number of charities, as well as local environmental initiatives have benefited. In 2007 we donated £27,880 (2006 - £47,649) including 'time in kind' giving. In the reporting period we also sponsored a number of community events with a value of £55,709 (2006 - £53,800). The Group does not make donations to political parties, organisations or their representatives.
Satisfied Customers
Countryside Properties is committed to continually improving standards of customer care. We therefore operate a best practice Customer Satisfaction Strategy across all our residential Divisions. During the reporting period, in-house research revealed that 84% (2006: 84%) of purchasers were satisfied (extremely/very/on average) with the overall service provided by the Group after 6 weeks of occupation. Since 2005, we have seen a year on year improvement in ‘recommend a friend’ and, in 2007, 84% of purchasers (2006: 80%) were prepared to recommend us.
The overall objective of the research is to provide our marketing, sales and construction teams with timely and actionable information, fed back directly from purchasers at key stages during the buying, moving in and occupation phases. We benchmark our results against National House Building Council and Home Builder’s Federation research to ensure the comparability of our performance with our peers. This comprehensive suite of research enables us to track satisfaction and make the required enhancements to the business to achieve continual improvement.