Landsec has announced a £20m fund dedicated to enhancing social mobility in the real estate industry over the next 10 years.
The REIT’s Realising Potential Fund aims to deliver around £200m of social value by 2030, and as part of this support at least 30,000 people from lower socio-economic backgrounds into long-term employment.
The scheme will support a number of social mobility programmes across the UK, focused on creating pathways to employment in real estate for underrepresented groups, as well as other initiatives to tackle social inequalities more broadly. The fund is expected to be fully operational by the start of the 2023/24 financial year.
Landsec chief executive Mark Allan said: “Inequality of opportunity is a real challenge facing our country. As a business, we need to own our part of the problem – and therefore we will focus a proportion of the Realising Potential Fund on breaking down barriers to the real estate industry.
“This will mean directly creating job opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in our business and with our partners, as well as providing bursaries to study disciplines which are critical to the delivery of thriving and inclusive places, such as architecture.”
Allan added: “But we also have a duty to spread opportunity in the communities where we invest across the country. By supporting 30,000 people into long-term employment, we hope to enhance social mobility across these areas, supporting more and more people to realise their potential.”
The fund will offer mentoring programmes, careers sessions, work experience and training, as well as direct job opportunities with Landsec and partners.
Landsec said it will also look to tackle social mobility more broadly across communities in which it works by working with peers, suppliers, customers and charities to provide other disadvantaged groups including homeless people, ex-offenders and the long-term unemployed better access to the job market.
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