The corporate responsibility team has undertaken a review of our existing community programme to ensure alignment with UU’s strategy and to ensure that the benefits and impacts can be measured via an agreed measurement tool.
All community partnerships that have entered a new agreement have been approved by our stringent governance approach.
Our partnerships continue to be managed and reviewed by the in-house team. Partnerships agreed in the last year have included:
- A new agreement with WaterAid which supports the charity’s work to improve water and sanitation provision for communities in Africa by using the skills of our employees
- Partnerships developed as a result of the Changing Lives Challenge
- United Futures
Our United Futures partnership with Groundwork funds and delivers grass roots projects in neighbourhoods where our engineers are working. Projects range from eco-schools challenge in Cheshire to an allotment improvement scheme in Lancaster, a subway renovation in Salford to the creation of a Victorian-style community garden in Wigan.
United Futures was launched in 2007, but really hit its stride in 2008 – delivering 72 bespoke projects and improving more than 71,000 square metres of land - the equivalent of ten Wembley football pitches! By providing up-front investment, the programme is able to attract ‘matched funding’ from other sources, such as the National Lottery. For every £1 that United Utilities invests, £3 gets ploughed back into local communities.
As a business, we have benefited enormously from the United Futures programme. By playing an active role in community life, we have been able to improve our relationships with customers and bolster corporate reputation. This is helping our engineers to do their day jobs more effectively.
For example, in Carlisle, our engineers are carrying out a major sewer improvement programme, which has necessitated months of road closures. Through United Futures, we have been actively engaging with local schools and community groups, and delivering several much-needed community improvement projects. These efforts have helped to dramatically reduce opposition to the sewer work.
The programme has also had huge benefits for our employees. To date, we have involved more than 600 employees in volunteer days across the region – a great opportunity for them to get out from behind their desks and get their hands dirty. This has proved a terrific way of boosting morale and encouraging team work.