Employment

Bellway Homes Employment Strategy

Mark Walker, construction manager for Bellway, with his team at Alcott Grove

Mark Walker, Construction Manager for Bellway Homes, talks about employment in North Solihull.

"The 15 year Regenerating North Solihull project is a huge undertaking that will dominate the area for the foreseeable future. Any company worth its salt only has to take a look at what is happening already at this early stage to see that there are going to be a huge number of new business opportunities created in the years to come.

One of the key principles behind Regenerating North Solihull is that it is about helping to improve the lives of the residents in the area by improving educational and employment opportunities, as well as improving housing and the environment.

Over the next 15 years, North Solihull will see a mixture of 8,000 new social and private houses built as well as five new Village Centres, and series of new primary schools with an overall investment of £1.8 billion. If there is no focus on giving the local residents opportunities to put something back into the local economy then we were missing a trick to regenerate the area.

From the outset, local people have been at the heart of this scheme and any suggestions that the regeneration programme is ignoring the wishes and needs of residents, are completely unfounded.

It would be very difficult to complete a scheme of this size if there wasn't a significant involvement by the local workforce. Alcott Grove off Winchester Drive in Chelmsley Wood is a £7 million housing scheme made up of 32 houses and 16 apartments. On any given day, up to 50 per cent of the workers on site either came from the local area or were employed by local firms. For instance we had bricklayers who live locally, the cleaning company who made sure the houses were ready to occupy are from Chelmsley Wood, and the firm of electricians we used on that site are from around the corner.

We have also employed two new site managers, one from Smith's Wood and one from Kingshurst, who are currently working on sites outside the area, but will be brought back to run future housing sites which will be up and running in 2008.

It isn't uncommon for construction projects of this magnitude to have to look far and wide for sufficient skilled and unskilled labour, so we are in a very fortunate position to have such a large, and enthusiastic workforce right on our doorstep. Construction workers will happily tell you that one of the downsides of the job is all the travelling, so to find work near where you live is quite a rarity.

Of course, there are going to be companies that may not fit our criteria, but until they talk to us it is impossible to find out how they may be able to get involved. Bellway Homes is in North Solihull for the long haul and will be a key component in the transformation of the area and there is likely to be hundreds, if not thousands, of job opportunities in the years to come."