Trainee Challenge 2025: Supporting Jackie's Drop-In
Willmott Dixon volunteers delivered vital improvements for a charity supporting individuals with disabilities.
A better, fairer society
For Willmott Dixon, a building is never just a building. Every project is a chance to leave a lasting, positive legacy, to create opportunity, support those who need it most, and help communities thrive long after we have left site. In 2025, our work delivered £472 million in social return on investment across our live projects.
Social value is how we build
Social value is part of how we plan and deliver our projects, from the first conversation onwards.
In 2025, 100% of our projects had a social value plan co-created with the customer, shaped around the real needs of each place: the local people looking for a route into work, the young people who need to see a career in construction is open to them, and the causes that matter most to a community. That is why our impact is both wide and deep, and why it lasts.
Our impact in 2025
| £472.0m | social return on investment across our live projects |
| 100% | of projects with a social value plan co-created with the customer |
| £5.32m | spent with social enterprises |
| 11,000+ | hours volunteered by our people in their communities |
| 93% | of our people delivered a social value activity |
| 91% | of beneficiaries rated our community activities as high impact |
| 3,500+ | people supported through employability sessions |
| 23 | people supported into sustainable employment — seven hired directly by us |
In a sector that needs more people and a wider range of skills, we focus on helping individuals who may face barriers to work running employability sessions for more than 3,500 people in 2025, and supporting 23 into sustainable employment, seven of whom joined Willmott Dixon directly.
The reach of this work depends on people across the business. In 2025, 93% of our people took part in a social value activity, contributing more than 11,000 volunteering hours in their communities. Feedback from beneficiaries shows the value of that effort, with 91% rating our community activities as high impact.
UK's best business recognition
Our approach to social value was recognised in 2023 when Willmott Dixon received a King’s Award for Enterprise in the Promoting Opportunity category.
The award reflected work taking place across our projects and programmes to help people access advice, skills and employment opportunities — particularly those who may face barriers to work.
One example is our Building Lives Academies, which support ex-offenders to gain construction skills and a route back into work through academies in prisons including HMP Belmarsh and HMP Elmley.
Recognition matters, but the real measure is the difference this work makes. Through our Building Lives strategy, we aim to improve the life chances of 100,000 people and support 1,000 into sustainable careers by 2030.
The Peter Willmott Foundation
The Peter Willmott Foundation was created to honour the values of Peter Willmott — values that continue to shape our long-running sense of responsibility, service and commitment to leaving a lasting legacy.
Through charitable giving, the Foundation makes a practical difference by supporting charities and community organisations that help people overcome barriers, build confidence and access greater stability and opportunity. From tackling food poverty and building life skills, to supporting vulnerable people and strengthening community wellbeing, it carries forward a tradition of community commitment that has run through generations of our family business.
What this means to us
This is what Building Places, Building Lives means. The buildings we hand over are the visible part of what we do. The lasting part is the opportunity we create, the people we help into work, and the stronger, fairer communities we leave behind.