Housing market renewal bringing social benefits to Hyndburn

Contractors working on Elevate projects in Hyndburn are to sign up to measures that will benefit local communities.

Developers and construction companies will be required to agree to targets including employing local people, using local companies and suppliers, and behaving considerately towards the environment.

Elevate, the housing market renewal pathfinder for East Lancashire, is introducing these conditions - known as 'social benefit contract clauses' - jointly with its five local authority partners, including Hyndburn Borough Council. The clauses also include targets around Health & Safety; training; sustainability; on-site behaviour; providing schools with information and site visits; and recruitment from under-represented groups such as women and BME communities.

Elevate is not only insisting that developers and contractors achieve social and economic goals, it is also assisting firms to achieve those aims. Elevate's Constructing The Future project was set up to provide this support by providing NVQ level 2 training off-site; the Elevate Youthbuild programme that is bringing BME communities into construction; and projects to develop companies' technical skills.

Elevate's Commercial Director Tom Dobrashian said: "Housing market renewal is about much more than houses, and these clauses will help ensure that we make East Lancashire a better place to live by spelling out a clear duty of care towards residents and the neighbourhoods where they live.

"Ensuring that contractors behave responsibly, channel investment into the local economy and provide jobs and training opportunities for local people is key to creating communities that are sustainable long into the future."

What is Elevate?

Elevate is one of the government's housing market renewal pathfinders, charged with finding innovative solutions to the problem of low demand, negative equity, and housing market collapse in towns across East Lancashire.

A major part of the programme focuses on improving the quality and diversity of the housing stock, but the challenge is greater than that. Sustainable neighbourhoods cannot be created through housing renewal alone. Elevate is working with public and private sector partners - including the local authorities of Hyndburn, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale - to improve economic prosperity, the environment, community safety, cohesion, educational attainment and health, to make East Lancashire a place where people choose to live, work, visit and relax. For more information about Elevate, please see www.elevate-eastlancs.co.uk