All our projects place people and communities at their heart
Our approach to social value ensures that, alongside delivering brilliant buildings for our customers, we leave a lasting legacy by improving the wellbeing of people who live nearby.
Our people, customers, and supply chain partners - as well as organisations and groups in the wider community - all form part of our social value considerations. We listen carefully to understand their needs and plan where we can have the most impact on their wellbeing.
Careers and employability support forms a significant part of this work - more detail can be found here.
Co-creating social value
In 2025, 100% of our projects had a social value plan based on research into community need and co-created with our customers or people from the community.
Community cohesion
We focus on community cohesion because strengthening safety, inclusion and local support networks directly reduces the risks that lead to crime and vulnerability. Our approach - rooted in understanding what each community genuinely needs - helps us create environments where people feel protected, connected and proud of where they live. This aligns with our long-standing commitment to help communities flourish through practical, compassionate action, delivered in partnership with local organisations who know their communities best.
During 2025, our teams supported ongoing relationships with local community organisations by giving time, skills and materials.
Some highlights from 2025:
In January, we partnered with Magpie Security to upgrade CCTV at The Gingerbread Centre, a mother-and-baby homelessness charity in Stoke-on-Trent (below). The £5,000 of work was delivered entirely free of charge, helping mothers feel safer in their homes.
Making the most of Spring sunshine, volunteers returned to Wildbrook Community Food and Growing Hub to support a food-growing project one of Oldham’s most deprived areas. They cleared rubble, weeds and tree stumps to prepare growing areas and develop a new secret garden for the local community (below).
Ahead of Easter, our teams went above and beyond to make sure children in the communities where we were working didn’t go without.
Knowing many families in Westminster rely on foodbank support, our Interiors team donated 300 Easter eggs to The Abbey Centre Foodbank, a vital community resource supporting local families close to our Department for Education Sanctuary Buildings project.
“We’re delighted to be able to offer an Easter egg to everyone who attends our family-focused services. Our sincere thanks to you and your fantastic team for all the help and support in arranging this generous gift.”
- Caz, Service and Volunteer Manager at The Abbey Centre.
Our Midlands team took part in the Great British Spring Clean, collecting bags of rubbish in Birmingham that would otherwise have caused pollution and harmed local wildlife (below left).
In Westminster, our Seymour Leisure Centre team joined Veolia for a litter‑picking session around The Strand and Northumberland Avenue, clearing multiple bags of rubbish (below right). An example of how small projects can improve the environment and improve quality of life for local communities.
In Chadderton, where residents lacked accessible green space and opportunities to develop practical skills, our Northern Roots team worked with supply chain partners and Oldham Council to deliver a new community growing hub at Berries Field Park. More than 140 staff volunteering hours were donated across long summer days with over £38,000 invested in the project. At its December opening, Cllr Abdul Jabbar MBE said it "is about giving local people the space and support they need to grow their own food and come together as a community."
Ahead of winter in Manchester, our Greenheys project team and supply chain partners Longworth Facades and Whitecroft Lighting assembled over 100 homeless care bags containing thermal socks, ponchos, dental kits and personal care items.
Across the country we support a range of fantastic causes dedicated to enabling everyone to have a merry Christmas. From volunteering at foodbanks to donating hampers and gifts, our teams across the country went above and beyond to support a range of fantastic causes that helped those in need have a merry Christmas.
At Webb Lane Community Allotment, our team member dressed as an elf to greet the hundreds of children visiting Santa, with supply chain partners A&B Engineering donating £1,000 towards gifts for the children and to Evergreen for donating over 200 selection boxes.
As part of our long-term commitment to Torbay's regeneration, we sponsored and volunteered at free breakfast sessions at Torquay Library throughout winter — now running for a second consecutive year — helping local people stay warm, nourished and connected.
Prioritising physical and mental health
We recognise that we have a duty to support the mental health of our people and those in the wider construction industry. We provide training and support services free of charge to our people and members of our supply chain working on our projects via Lighthouse the construction industry charity. All our sites have mental health first aiders, and we actively support mental health first aider training in the wider industry.
The project team at Kendrew Barracks opened their site to Lighthouse as part of the national ‘Make It Visible’ campaign. Over 100 people came together for an open conversation about mental health and loneliness in the workplace - a reminder that social value on a construction site extends to the wellbeing of the people building it, not just the community receiving it.
2025 Willmott Dixon Trainee Challenge
Our Trainee Challenge, run by the Peter Willmott Foundation - Willmott Dixon's charitable arm which takes its name from our former chairman - gives trainees £500 in seed funding plus access to colleagues and supply chain partners to deliver high-impact community projects.
Four trainee-led projects were delivered in 2025:
Friends of Bright Eyes (FOBE)
A transformative refurbishment of FOBE, a Luton disability charity, with 59 volunteers, 3,263 volunteering hours, and £58,000+ in gifts in kind — including new fencing, access routes, sensory lighting and a 17-metre pergola canopy.
Jackie's Drop In
Letchworth-based Jackie's Drop In provide community support for adults with disabilities, involving 24 volunteers and activity days for 20 service users. The team enhanced the charity shop, extended opening hours and ran community fundraising events.
Kent Hospice Charity Shops
A full makeover of two Hospice in the Weald shops by 32 volunteers contributing 750 hours, generating £28,228 total project value, including £3,435 raised through fundraising events.
Supporting Mental Health in Construction
Our management trainee team donated 670 volunteering hours, raising £5,374 for mental health charity bigmoose (below) - organising suicide prevention training and fundraising through quiz nights and personal challenges.
Fundraising for charity
Giving back and supporting the most vulnerable is part of our DNA. Charitable works have featured in our reports since 1977, and that commitment is carried forward through the Peter Willmott Foundation — named in honour of Peter Willmott, who passed away in January 2024. In 2025, the Foundation supported over £150,000 of fundraising by our people, adding over £8,000 in boost funding.
Teams across Wales & West continued to take part in major fundraising challenges to support causes close to local communities.
In Exeter, daring colleagues abseiled down the front of Derriford Hospital's tower block - an effort that attracted BBC coverage and saw more than £19k raised - strengthened ties with University Hospitals Plymouth and demonstrating the team’s commitment to supporting local health services.
Raising the game higher – 40 brave individuals from our Interiors business and supply chain partners skydived from 12,000ft, raising over £10k for Single Homeless Project, a charity working tirelessly to tackle homelessness across London.
Our Interiors team celebrated raising £50,000 for CoppaFeel - a charity which promotes early detection of breast cancer. Fundraising events involving supply chain included a Charity Golf Day and It’s A Knockout-style sports day (below).
In Southern England, inspired by TV's Race Across the World, our twelve supply-chain-sponsored teams raised over £35,000 for Building for the Future. This Wokingham-based organisation supports children with disabilities and their families.
"It's always lovely to see how happy the team are and how they clearly enjoy working for Willmott Dixon. The teams who took part, the support team and everyone behind the scenes, we are all so grateful. And as for the enormous sum raised, we are blown away! This will help us so much in our quest to grow our charity into new, bigger and better premises. Thank you all."
Jane Holmes, CEO of Building for the Future