Southdale believe in involving everyone in the community as much as possible during the planning and build process.

We care about our customers and the kind of communities we create. We want our customers to be happy in their homes and the places where they live. By taking care in this way, we can create vibrant and positive neighbourhoods and communities.

Our approach to individual residents is based upon flexibility, personal attention and responsiveness. We work closely with local people to involve and consult them in the decisions and changes that affect their lives.

Building a sustainable community

Sustainable communities are built when people feel fully involved and have ownership of the changes in their community. This means maximum consultation, excellent customer care and comprehensive on-site support.

To encourage greater community involvement, we organise and co-ordinate a range of activities in the communities we build. These include:

• School visits and involvement of school children in our local developments
• Representation at local community groups
• Sponsorship and support of local community events
• Site tours for tenants and local councillors.

We work as a team with a wide range of community groups and actively seek out community-based initiatives, supported with resources and finance:

We are frequently involved with school activities and enjoy engaging with pupils, students, teachers and neighbouring communities to make the construction experience positive, and even a point of learning for young people. We have even been known to inspire the odd career in construction along the way!

• Our team have built a sensory garden for Ravenscliffe School, Halifax - a school for physically and mentally disabled children. The project, although small, made a big difference and was greatly rewarding for everyone involved
• We have arranged planting and community clear-ups, both in communities we’ve worked with and those we plan to work with in the future
• Recently, we involved local school children by challenging them to name our new development and offered a prize for the winner
• We are proud to lead a group of employers who support Leeds University in their ‘Building Links for Women in Construction’ project
• To celebrate the completion of our £20m development in York we organised a residents’ tea party which was a huge success in the community
• We developed some DIY workshops with Chevin Housing for local female residents covering basic plastering and joinery techniques.