Taylor Wimpey is one of the UK’s largest residential developers building over 15,000 homes per year from 24 regional businesses across England, Scotland and Wales. The company was formed in 2007 through a merger between George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow, our combined history dating back to 1880. Taylor Wimpey has national scale, local knowledge and financial strength. Our mission is to create great places to live and deliver an excellent service which inspires and delights our stakeholders.
We are a responsible community developer, committed to working with local people, community groups and local authorities, keeping them informed about our work throughout the life of the development and creating a lasting legacy. We do much more than build homes; we add social, economic and environmental value to the wider communities in which we operate.
Click here to visit the Taylor Wimpey website for more information.
Case Study
Prince Philip Park
In 2015 Taylor Wimpey, working in joint venture with Dorchester Regeneration, were selected as Development Manager for the Ministry of Defence to deliver the redevelopment of Prince Philip Barracks in Bordon, Hampshire. Once complete, Prince Philip Park will be a mixed tenure development of 2,400+ private, affordable, Private Rental Sector, elderly care, rent to buy and custom build homes that meet the needs of the local market. The housing will be supported by a new town centre, employment space, the third largest Sustainable Area of Natural Greenspace in the UK totalling 55 hectares, skate park, Sports Pavilion, relief road, five mile green loop, primary and secondary schools, some of which were delivered before the first homes for the benefit of the existing community. We have also contributed land to the Local Authority for the creation of a new leisure centre. Working with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) we are actively working with small housebuilders to join us on site for the next 10 to 15 years.
To find out more information about Prince Philip Park, please click the following link – www.princephilippark.co.uk
Biodiversity
Improving biodiversity was key for this project. We have planted native trees to improve woodland biodiversity and created a 5-hectare heathland habitat. In addition, across the site we have installed 120 wildlife boxes, two bat hibernation bunkers, one bat maternity roost, two new water bodies for wildlife, carried out improvement works to an existing pond and included 25 community art pieces including way markers, gateway features and interpretation. The early biodiversity projects being delivered act as a good start for Taylor Wimpey’s wider commitment to biodiversity net gain.
Community engagement
Following the relocation of Army personnel, we have focused on a programme of meanwhile uses and community-based events to open up the site and raise the profile of the development. Our Community Development Officer was employed at project inception to ensure community and local stakeholder engagement from day one. Our Community Development Officer is a great asset to the team and their contribution is invaluable in creating a visible presence in the town, seeking out and engaging with stakeholders and local community groups.
The project team work with local residents, businesses, charities, schools, and organisations to:
- organise and deliver our events
- ascertain how we can work together and gather opinions
- provide project progress updates
We host a minimum of five events per month, which are not currently delivered locally, such as Zumba, roller discos, woodland walks, open air cinemas, trail walks and children’s parties. In 2017 we held 80 events reaching 6,796 people. We keep the community informed through monthly newsletters sent to over 1,600 locals, a Facebook page followed by over 2,500 people, and a regularly updated website.
Our onsite Project Delivery Team engages with the local community on an informal basis daily and hold monthly ‘Question Time’ open forums. Our team also volunteer as Governors for three local schools. Our Community Trust embeds local people at the heart of the decision-making process giving them a say in the distribution of Section 106 funds and place management.
We engage with the Council to develop our sponsorship and ‘pull-through’ of local apprentices, particularly from the Whitehill & Bordon Future Skills Centre. In September 2017, we supported the opening of this vocational skills training centre offering construction courses designed to meet the needs of industry.
Supporting local and national businesses
There were a number of buildings, totalling a million sqft, on site which were used by the Army for training and storage facilities. Instead of demolishing these buildings we carefully considered our phasing plan to keep these buildings for demolition at a later date which enabled us to create the Bordon Enterprise Park, letting out these buildings to regional and national businesses who needed affordable workspaces.
Asmodee, a French board game company, were originally based in a local town and took a short-term lease in one of the existing buildings on site. Asmodee notified us that they needed a new permanent building or they were going to move outside of the UK, loosing valuable local jobs. We worked with Asmodee to design a dedicated building on MoD land (which was going to be returned to heathland) allowing them to remain in the UK, saving 150 local jobs and generating many more.
