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The Willmott Dixon Foundation

Driving social mobility in our communities - the Willmott Dixon Foundation

The Willmott Dixon Foundation was established in 2011 to guide, monitor and collate the social and community investment activities of our people. It provides our approach to CSR, Social Value and Community.

We help people thrive using our skills, experience and know-how to make a tangible difference. To focus our efforts, we have set the business a series of unique ambitions through the Building Lives theme of our Now or Never strategy, which takes us to 2030.

Since 1852 Willmott Dixon has been making a difference to communities. Long before the term 'social value' was coined, Willmott Dixon was carrying out charitable works in the areas in which we build - we can see this in the company's 1978 report and accounts which states: "At Willmotts we have, for a long time ... provided aid not only in financial terms but in the service of our employees to many organisations."

The Foundation is the umbrella for all of our community activities. We strive to deliver them:

  • With compassion and consideration to what is really needed and wanted within a community.
  • With an understanding that our social value work enhances our brand, supports our people and helps us win business.
  • In collaboration with internal and external partners (supply chain, customers, competitors, community organisations) to enhance impact, keep us true and make us more efficient.

King's Award WD Interiors mid cropped.jpg

Queen's Awards Logo's.jpg


Using this approach, we have:

  • Been awarded the King's Award for Promoting Opportunity (2023) for our work to enhance the life opportunities of others (celebrated by our Interiors team, above).
  • Been awarded the Queen's Award for Sustainable Development (2019) for our role in preserving the environment and enhancing society's wellbeing.
  • Been awarded the Queen's Awards for Enterprise (2018), where we were only one of six companies to achieve this accolade in the category ‘Promoting Opportunity’ through social mobility.
  • The Sunday Times Best Companies special award for ‘Giving Back’ in 2019 (between 2018-2020 we were named as a top 5 employer)
  • Between 2011-2020 the Foundation made it possible to enhance the life chances of 10,000 young people - a target we hit 19 months early.
  • Moved from ad-hoc delivery to programmes of activities that are more efficient to deliver whilst having greater impact.

To see the impact we had in 2022, see our poster.

Foundation Poster 2022.jpg

Watch our video about the Foundation here:


“Our purpose goes beyond profit. Creating value for our communities is something we passionately believe in, and we strive to constantly find new ways to improve social mobility in communities local to our projects and contracts. As a privately-owned company, being a positive force to deliver social cohesion and provide life-long opportunities for people is important for Willmott Dixon, especially for myself as the fifth generation to lead the company. I am proud of the difference we make through the fantastic efforts of our people.”
Rick Willmott, Group Chief Executive.

Social Value

Read more about our approach to social value here.


Previous Willmott Dixon Foundation Annual Reviews

More annual Foundation reviews can be found in our review archive.


Ten year anniversary

In 2011, we established the Willmott Dixon Foundation. Our poster charts our achievements over the past decade.