Better Community

Community News

As a landlord and developer, we have a big part to play in making spaces that work for everyone. Our places will bring new people but we are mindful that we operate in established communities; we are respectful of this and want to benefit these communities through tangible opportunities such as employment, opportunities for local business in new supply chains and investment in community facilities. By getting to know our local community, supporting, listening, and engaging through activities on our developments we aim to forge a fully inclusive community.

Canary Wharf Group is not a short-term developer that builds and moves away to the next project. We have developed more top-quality office space in London than any other company over the last 30 years and we place great importance on living the values and principles of being a good neighbour.

View our 30 years of Canary Wharf Report

Creating Economic Opportunity

Our developments create new economic opportunity and we want people living in the surrounding areas to benefit from this. Working with local support organisations, we promote new employment opportunities on our developments to local job seekers and where local people to Canary Wharf are seeking to access further education to equip themselves with the required skills for a role, we have the Tower Hamlets and Canary Wharf Further Education Trust. Established in 1990, the Trust has supported more than 4,500 Tower Hamlets residents to access further and higher education as well as vocational training to make the journey through education and into employment.

To create this sustainable pipeline of local talent we must prepare the future workforce. We host over 100 work experience placements each year and numerous career insight days to job seekers and students to ensure they are aware of the types of roles that are available, but also to ensure they can equip themselves with the required skills to succeed in the future.

Economic opportunity is not always felt through direct employment, we recognise that there are huge opportunities in the supply chains that are created in both the construction and management of a building. From the beginning of development at Canary Wharf we have engaged with this supply chain and championed local business within it, this has resulted in us spending over £2 billion in the local economy.

Investment in building, supporting, and maintaining this strong local supply chain remains a key priority. In 1997 the Local Business Liaison Office was created which later evolved to become the East London Business Place (ELBP) in a joint venture with the East London Business Alliance (ELBA). We continue to lead and fund this support and supply-chain brokerage organisation which develops the business-competitiveness of small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) across London and the Thames Gateway. With the success of the initiative, when we began development of Southbank Place, the South London Procurement Network was set up to deliver the same support to businesses in and around South London. SMME’s who have been in receipt of support from ELBP and SLPN have gone on to secure contracts worth £637 million.

Community Grant Programme

Canary Wharf Group

We understand that we have a responsibility to create a positive and lasting impact that goes beyond the buildings and places we create, which is why we have launched our Community Grant Programme.

 

 

The Programme is aligned to our overarching Social Value Strategy which focuses on the benefits we deliver to wider society and is open to all not-for-profit organisations operating in and benefitting the residents of Tower Hamlets.

Click here to read more about our Community Grant Programme

Being a Good Neighbour

Canary Wharf Group

We understand that there will be residents close to our developments who are unable to, or do not wish to, access the resultant economic opportunities. To these people, and the wider community we strive to be a good neighbour. We share updates on our construction projects and engage on our future plans. We also directly fund and support projects and organisations which help improve the lives of residents around our developments in the themes of connecting communities; supporting the elderly and young people; education, culture; heritage; health and wellbeing; and environment. A summary of some of these projects can be seen in our Community News.

Community News

To engage the younger members of our community we have produced a suite of educational resources, these have been rolled out in schools but can also be used for home learning.

View our Learning Resources

Corporate Leadership

We seek to lead our industry and to offer innovative and effective solutions to challenges affecting our sector, our local communities, our city, and our country. We take an active role in relevant business and representative organisations and support initiatives which improve the economic and social environment such as the Living Wage Foundation’s ‘Real Living Wage’ campaign. We will support national or international programmes and charities where our involvement will make a strategic difference and support the interests of our stakeholders such as the promotion and delivery of key infrastructure like the Jubilee line and the Elizabeth line.

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