Wilmott Dixon Archives - Destination Chesterfield

Prestigious King’s Awards for Chesterfield Volunteer Centre and Wilmott Dixon

16th November 2023

Two organisations which support Chesterfield’s growth and regeneration have been awarded highly prestigious King’s Awards.

Wilmott Dixon, which is a member of the town’s Property and Construction Group King’s Award for Enterprise for Promoting Opportunity. Willmott Dixon was one of only nine companies recognised this year in this category.

It’s the fourth such accolade for the company, and the first from HM King Charles III. It was awarded in recognition of the wide-ranging activities of Willmott Dixon’s people to make society a better place, especially for those who face significant barriers to achieving their full potential in life.

In the last year, four out of five of Wilmott Dixon’s 2000+ workforce have delivered a social value-based activity in their community to improve the life chances of others. This includes mentoring, supporting people with interview training, careers advice and enhancing a local community asset for people to use. In all, last year saw Willmott Dixon’s team create and deliver over 608 community programmes and engage with over 70,000 people in activities to boost their life chances. This led to 88% saying it had a beneficial impact on them.

In total, over 48,000 hours were volunteered by Willmott Dixon people, and this led to over 200 people facing major barriers to work gaining employment through the company’s intervention. Willmott Dixon also helped further drive social mobility among the most vulnerable and less fortunate by spending over £2.5m with social businesses last year.

Rick Willmott explained: “This sense of purpose to help the communities where we work is in the very DNA of our company. From offering opportunities and employability skills for those facing major barriers to employment, to improving buildings so they encourage better community cohesion – our social value projects are an important reason people want to work for us and their impact is something our customers and communities value hugely.

“I want to express my deep appreciation to everyone who’s work has made a difference. This award belongs to us all, and it reflects the passion and dedication we share for helping others.”

Meanwhile, The Volunteer Centre Chesterfield & North East Derbyshire has been awarded The Kings Award for Voluntary Service. This is the highest Award given to voluntary groups across the UK, and it is awarded for life. The award is for voluntary groups rather than individuals and is seen as the MBE for voluntary groups.

In a correspondence from the KAVS Team The Volunteer Centre were told;

“His Majesty The King has approved the KAVS National Assessment Committee’s recommendation that the volunteers of The Volunteer Centre – Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire should receive The King’s Award for Voluntary Service 2023. This represents a tremendous achievement and we hope that the group’s volunteers will feel immensely proud of it.”

The announcement was made on November 14^th and cited officially in the ‘London Gazette’ of the same date. This will be followed by a local presentation of a cut glass award and an official certificate signed by The King. In the summer of next year, representatives of The Volunteer Centre will be invited to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.

CEO Dave Radford, on hearing the news said: “Obviously we are all tremendously proud of what we have achieved. Our volunteers worked so hard and they did so much during the pandemic providing a much-needed shopping service to individuals. The local communities would have struggled without their fantastic help.

“However, it is so much more than that, this isn’t something that is handed out on a plate, it is an Award that shines a light on the fantastic work carried out by volunteers and groups that make a big difference in their communities. I think it will take sometime to wipe the smile off my face!”

Wilmott Dixon supports the marketing and economic growth of the town through Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 200 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.

Dave Radford, Chesterfield Volunteer Centre with guests at the Chesterfield Volunteer Sector Awards

‘Chesterfield’s development is no coincidence and can continue,’ concludes industry panel

1st November 2022

Chesterfield has a unique offering and continued collaboration between the public and private sectors is critical in ensuring growth does not stop, according to a panel of industry experts.

Speaking at national contractor Willmott Dixon’s second ‘Towns of the Future’ roundtable – hosted at Tapton Park Innovation Centre – the 10-person panel discussed topics including the current building stock, skills, talent retention and investment.

It was agreed that identifying challenges in regeneration projects and collaborative working by the public and private sector can unlock potential hurdles.

The panel agreed conversations taking place are very encouraging – something, which is especially important at a time when regeneration projects amounting to a value of more than £1 billion are in progress.

Jerry Major, regional framework manager at Willmott Dixon, said: “Chesterfield has great potential and, because local authorities now understand what the private sector can offer more than ever before, the opportunity to make the most of different areas and create mixed-use developments is being unlocked.

“It’s vital that businesses in Chesterfield, both big and small, play an active role in promoting the careers available here and the opportunity to lead a fulfilling lifestyle. While we have been involved in projects in Chesterfield in the past, we understand the importance of maintaining our relationship with the stakeholders here and offering an advisory role to the public sector organisations in need of regeneration expertise.”

As part of the discussion, there were several references to Chesterfield Waterside and the Staveley Town Deal, though questions centred around what went right and wrong for Chesterfield in 2022, how can more attention be generated on what is happening in Chesterfield and what the focus of growth should be in Chesterfield over the next 10 years.

Dominic Stevens, manager at Destination Chesterfield, said: “Chesterfield has a clear growth plan, place story and sense of identity. The vision for Chesterfield has been in place now for more than a decade and we continue to see the positive results of this plan.”

“Looking forward to the next 10 years, it was excellent to hear people from different areas of industry agree on the importance of meeting the needs and desires of the next generation. We must ensure that development and regeneration lead to inclusive sustainable growth and Chesterfield continues to be a great place to live, work, visit and invest.”

Ivan Fomin, managing director at MSE Hiller and Chair of Staveley Town Deal said: “Effective collaboration can ensure that the potential benefits of the many regeneration sites are maximised.

“The public and private sector working together ensures developments keep moving forward while different sources of funding are available to gain.

“More relationships need to be formed so that it is not a small market competing for work, because there is so much potential here that we must all help to realise.”

Building on the success of Willmott Dixon’s two roundtables in Chesterfield this year, the national contractor looks to continue engagement with a range of stakeholders.

The panel was chaired by Liz Cartwright (Cartwright Communications) and featured Jerry Major (Willmott Dixon), Adam Rodgers (Marketing Derby), Ivan Fomin (MSE Hiller and Destination Chesterfield), Peter Swallow (Destination Chesterfield), Dominic Stevens (Destination Chesterfield), Duncan Hogg (Bond Bryan), David Kemp (DLP Planning) and Amy Revell (We Are Spaces).

Wilmott Dixon, MSE Hiller, DLP Planning and We Are Spaces supports the marketing and economic growth of the town through Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 200 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.