Greenwich Builds

We’ve been continuing to deliver social value for Royal Borough of Greenwich and in April attended its Greenwich Social Value Showcase at Charlton House, which celebrated the positive impact of the social value initiatives being carried out under the Greenwich Builds contract.

We’ve also recently completed several of our Greenwich Builds projects, and we were pleased to attend Royal Borough of Greenwich’s welcome event for the new residents at our Halsbrook Road development back in April. During the event, special tributes were made to Councillor Christine Grice, who sadly passed away last year. A part of the development has been named in her memory. Mayor of Greenwich, Jit Ranabhat, and Leader of Greenwich Council, Anthony Okereke, were in attendance, alongside other councillors, Christine’s family and the new residents, plus our MD, Ray Elkins.

Work placements

We continue to work with YouthBuild to provide opportunities for local young people to get into the construction industry. At the end of May, our HR & Learning Development Advisor, Sarah, attended Youth Build’s mock interview and CV writing session at their Thamesmead Centre. Following this, we had five of the candidates join us for a week of work experience from 2^nd-6^th June as part of our commitment to providing work placements for local residents under our Greenwich Builds contract. Anisa worked in our HR department, Tobi and Kylan in Site Management, Jaden worked with our RLO team and Summer with our Multi-Trade team.

We have recently been joined by another YouthBuild candidate, Matt, who will be with us for work experience every Monday until he goes to university in September. He’ll be working with Site Manager, Dave Conroy, at our Buckhurst Street site and observing the various trades associated with delivering a modular new build project.

In June, we also hosted a site visit for Youth Build partners at our new build site, The Brooks, where the candidates got to see the project in progress and learn more about the modular construction process. At the end of the month, our Social Value Manager, Ayesha, will also be attending Youth Build’s ‘Young People Building Community Together’ event.

In our last update, we announced we were providing work placements for London South East Colleges’ first intake of Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction T-Level students. We were pleased to welcome Tyler, Che, Jada, Madeleine, Vito and Adam to start their placements in June. They will be working with our Site Manager, Ian Stubbs, Quantity Surveyor, Chris Pierce, and Project Manager, Keith Hill, one day a week across two of our Greenwich Build sites for the next 40 weeks.

We’ve also been continuing our work with local schools to inspire young people into careers in construction. Ayesha conducted mock interviews with students in years 10 and 12 during a session at Eltham Hill School and attended Haberdashers’ Borough Academy’s careers networking event with Construction Youth Trust, where she spoke with Key Stage 4 students about the different routes into the construction industry. In mid-June, Ayesha, our HR Manager, Sarah, and Labourer, Alex, attended Bygrove Primary School to deliver a ‘Going to Work’ assembly to students about the various roles in construction.

Community initiatives

We’ve been working on several projects with local organisations to improve community spaces over the last three months. We’re working with Kasbah, an organisation providing support services for people with disabilities, to renovate its centre’s outdoor spaces as part of our social value commitment to Gravesham Borough Council. Improvement works include painting fences and benches, installing a new picnic bench and garden table, tidying up flower beds, weeding and supplying new flowers.

In June, we arranged for improvement works to three war memorials in Thanet – Bourner Memorial, the British Legion Memorial and the War Memorial at All Saints Church. The works are part of Thanet Council’s project to protect and restore some of its most significant statues and monuments. Andreea Plant, Head of Property at Thanet District Council, said: “The ultimate aim is to ensure that all statues and monuments on public land are preserved for future generations, and that the events or people that are commemorated are remembered for years to come. […] The contributions of our contractors WW Martin, AD Construction, Elkins, PJ Mears and BSW have made this project possible, and I would like to express my thanks to them all.”

We are also in discussions with local organisation, Sports 4 Change, to see how we can assist with internal improvement works required to its hub. The organisation does important work to facilitate sports and activities that transform lives and encourage healthier, happier futures for local communities.

Local donations

In addition to offering our services, we’ve also been supporting community organisations with their work through donations over the last three months. Under our recently awarded contract to build new homes for Gravesham Borough Council, we have made an early start delivering social value, with £1,500 worth of donations to four organisations helping distribute food and other essential items to people in the local community – Hive Hope Food Bank, Gravesham Food Bank, Salvation Army and the Community Cupboard.

Over the last few years, we’ve been committed to encouraging young people into sport by supporting local youth teams in the areas where we work. Continuing this commitment, we’ve also donated £500 towards running Gravesham Council’s free tennis and basketball sessions as part of its summer fun programme running during the school holidays.

Earlier this month, we agreed to donate four iPads to three local charities as part of our social value commitment for Tower Hamlets Council: Jubilee Street Practice, which delivers a wide range of health and wellbeing activities for local residents; Globe Community Project, a grassroots charity providing services to some of the borough’s most disadvantaged communities; and Turners and Locksley Community Centre, which provides a vital local hub promoting community cohesion. Mohammed Kenawi, Projects & Operations Officer at Globe Community Project said: “We are incredibly grateful for the IPad donation from Elkins Construction. This will have an immediate positive impact on our operations. Specifically, we plan to use it for our project’s weekly registration process. For a long time, our volunteers have managed this with paperwork, so transitioning to the tablet will save significant time and effort, allowing them to focus more on supporting our community members.”

This summer, we’re also excited to support two summer festivals for local people as part of our social value commitment under our Greenwich Builds contract. We have donated £2,500 and will be the principal sponsor at Hornfair ParksFest on 22^nd June and we will contributing over £4,000 to cover the entire cost of Kidbrooke Community Festival on 13^th July. Both festivals are key events in the summer calendar that provide a free day out for families and help bring local communities together.

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Inspiring the next generation

We’ve been continuing to work with youth employment agency, YouthBuild, to provide work placements for local young people. At the beginning of 2025, we welcomed two new candidates for work experience – Donnell, who was placed with the multi-trade team to work on our new build project at The Brooks, and Kimani, who worked on Sam Manners with our previous apprentice, Kyle Harris. Both Donnell and Kimani received great feedback on their performance from their supervisors, and we look forward to welcoming more candidates from YouthBuild later this year.

We have also agreed to provide four work placements for London South East Colleges’ (LSEC) first intake of Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction T-Level students. The students will spend four days at college and one day on site gaining practical experience every week for a year. We’ll be providing further updates and following the students progress on our website and social media channels throughout the placements.

Elkins’ Social Value Manager, Ayesha, has been continuing to work with local schools and colleges to promote construction careers to young people under our contract with Royal Borough of Greenwich. She recently attended Eltham Hill School’s Employability Day and Shooters Hill Sixth Form College’s Future Careers Fayre, as well as a ‘World of Work’ session at Mayflower Primary School, which was our first community engagement under our contract with new client, Tower Hamlets.

Giving back to local communities

Our biggest social value initiative in the first three months of the year was the completion of a new garden for a children’s centre in Greenwich, carried out in partnership with our fellow contractors, Durkan Homes and Blakeney Leigh. Following an initial consultation with the centre’s staff, the Elkins team drew up designs and appointed one of our approved suppliers to deliver the renovation works. We donated £8,700 towards the project, which Durkan matched, and Blakeney Leigh contributed the remaining £3,800 to cover the cost of the garden’s features.

As part of our ongoing support for South Thames Girls FC, we recently agreed to fund memberships for all players for the pioneering new online hub, She Plays Football. The platform is designed exclusively for young female footballers and their parents, and provides expert guidance, training tips, and unparalleled insights from both professional players and rising stars.

Looking ahead, we have agreed to fund the Kidbrooke Park Summer Community Festival at Blackheath Rugby Club, which is being organised by Greenwich councillors, John Fahy and Odette McGahey. We will be in attendance on the day and also have a stall at the event. Keep your eyes on our social media channels for confirmation of the date and further details.

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Dulwich Wood Primary School

We’ve established a long-term relationship with Dulwich Wood Primary School, situated within Kingswood Estate where we’re currently carrying out several major refurbishment projects. Since the start of the project, we have supported their various events and last year we also sponsored their football kits.

We’re now excited to reveal that we are supporting a major project the school is undertaking to build a new outdoor science area. When we met with the school earlier this year to hear about the plans, we knew we wanted to make a significant contribution to help them bring it to fruition, and agreed to donate £8,000.

We also reached out to our subcontractors working on the project, in an effort to raise further funds. Thanks to the generosity of Aereco Ltd, Bronzewood Metalworks, Cablesheer, Grout Electrical, Opus Waterproofing, PJ Mear, System Controls Installation, Token Cleaning, GC Construct and SO Integrations, we are thrilled to have now raised a staggering £17,195 to cover the cost of the science tables. In addition to their donation, SO Integrations have also kindly offered to donate two days of free labour.

We’re delighted to have raised such a significant sum for this project, which will provide long-term value for the school, and create a space to be enjoyed by current and future students for many years to come. Work is due to start at Easter and we’ll be providing regular progress updates on our social media.

CACT Extra Time Hub

We continue to support the Extra Time Hub in Greenwich, making regular donations each quarter to help with the cost of running the project. Our Social Value Manager, Ayesha, also volunteers at the sessions on a regular basis. We look forward to continuing to support this wonderful project that sees over one hundred over 55’s come together each week to enhance their physical and mental health.

Work experience

We continue to offer opportunities for local people to develop careers in the construction industry. In February, we welcomed two students from Shooters Hill Sixth Form College – Malahkie joined our Repairs and Maintenance team on a one-week multi-trade placement, and Riley undertook an electrical placement over two weeks, working on our Sam Manners new build modular project.

In March, we welcomed Kingston University Student, Mohammed, who is beginning a 12-week work placement within our Health and Safety department. This placement is part of our ongoing partnership with Building Pathways and helping to support their Pathways to Construction Management programme. The programme aims to address the lack of ethnic diversity of professionals and managers working in London’s Construction and Built Environment sector and focuses on developing a diverse talent pool of candidates by preparing and supporting them to access higher level apprenticeships into management. We’ll be checking in with Mohammed throughout his placement and look forward to following his progress.

Community engagement

As part of our work with Construction Youth Trust, we attended Ark Walworth Academy in February to speak to students about the various pathways into construction and the many roles available to them. We also have further sessions lined up in April.

We continue to work with Shooters Hill Sixth Form College. We delivered a ‘routes into construction’ presentation to students in February and also attended its careers fair in March. We will be arranging some site visits in the coming weeks to give the students further insight into the industry they are studying.

We are pleased to have recently partnered with Youth Build to support its upcoming YB100 programme for 18-to-25-year-olds within Lewisham. We will be taking part in their panel discussions, supporting employability sessions, and accommodating work experience placements.

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Since our partnership was established, we have had a number of success stories. In February 2020, we hosted our first three Building Pathways candidates, two of whom were offered full-time apprenticeships after impressing us during their trial periods. One candidate, Kyle Harris, recently completed his apprenticeship and is now a permanent Elkins employee, working as one of our Multi Traders. The other, Christopher Fearon, completed an initial two weeks of work experience in our Electrics department and is due to finish his apprenticeship very soon.

Not long after Kyle and Chris completed their initial placements, the coronavirus pandemic hit, which unfortunately put a hold on us welcoming any new candidates. Over the next few years, we continued to work with Building Pathways in different ways, delivering several workshops, shining a light on the variety of construction careers, and giving us the opportunity to introduce ourselves to potential new candidates in preparation for the time when restrictions eased.

We’re pleased to now be able to safely offer our work experience and apprenticeship opportunities again and recently welcomed Nicholas O’Kere for a two-week Multi Trade placement. Nicholas joined our Repairs and Maintenance team, carrying out a variety of different jobs so he could gain a well-rounded perspective of what the trade entails. In something of a full circle moment, he has been mentored by Kyle, who came to us through the same scheme three years ago. We also have another new starter from the scheme, Jamal Ali, who will be completing his Level 3 Electrical Apprenticeship with us.

Managing Director of Building Pathways, Philip Mills, said about the partnership: “We want to see resilient communities where young people, regardless of their backgrounds, can flourish through meaningful work. Through its support, work experience, mentoring and apprenticeships, Elkins has helped our candidates learn new skills and gain experience, setting a solid foundation for them to progress to full-time sustainable employment in the construction industry.”

We’re looking forward to seeing Nicholas and Jamal’s progress and supporting them in their future careers, as well as welcoming more candidates through the scheme later in the year.

Watch our Pre-Construction Manager, Julien Dixon’s, online talk for Building Pathways about the construction industry and the career opportunities available within it:

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