Supporting Social Enterprise

A key part of Wates’ approach is a focus on developing relationships with Social Enterprises (SE’s). SE’s are organisations that use their commercial activities to maximise social value within their communities. We believe that by supporting SE’s we get the benefit of access to local goods and services whilst also making a direct contribution to the local communities in which we work.

In 2016 we spent over £2m in the SE sector with three-quarters of all our construction sites utilising a Social Enterprise with their supply chain. The Cardiff Living project has, to date, spent £12,000 with local SE’s with the potential for a more significant contribution as the project progresses. Most recently, Cardiff Living has worked with social enterprise, Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind (MTIB), and paint recycling company, Paint360, to decorate the site hoardings across the Cardiff Living developments.

The appointment of MTIB closely follows Wates’ ‘Seeing is Believing’ social enterprise event in Cardiff, which was designed to demonstrate the difference SE’s make to the lives of local people. Held in partnership with SE experts, iSE, the event introduced delegates to a range of social enterprises working across Cardiff, including Greenstream Flooring CIC, Vision 21 and GR Cleaning Services.