Secondments to Business in the Community

Business: Carillion Building

Location: Kings Cross, London

Date: 2005 – ongoing

In partnership with: Business in the Community

Business benefits:

Establishing Carillion as a major delivery partner for Argent at Kings Cross

Introducing Argent to the breadth of Carillion’s offering

Demonstrating Carillion’s commitment to sustainability to local stakeholders

Community benefits:

Raising our profile

Collaborating with education business partnerships

Carillion has undertaken a secondment programme with Business in the Community to help them identify ways in which developers, construction companies and occupiers can work with local communities to enable them to share in the benefits of major regeneration projects.

The programme has focused on the Argent regeneration of Kings Cross, a £1.5bn scheme to redevelop 67 acres of derelict former railway lands to the north of Kings Cross Station.

Secondees have spent six months each working with BITC to deliver tangible actions that business can take to benefit local communities.

On 7th June 2006 this took the form of a BITC ‘Seeing is Believing’ Visit to Kings Cross which was led by Carillion chief executive John McDonough.

On the day, three community schemes were visited:

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South Camden Community School, a school in one of the 5% most deprived areas in the country

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Kings Cross Working, a scheme that trains local people with construction skills

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Camley Street Natural Park, a project run by London Wildlife Trust providing a natural environment for local people

The visit included senior directors from a number of property and other companies including The Crown Estate, Prupim, British Land, St George, Crossrail, Stanhope and The Guardian newspaper, enabling Carillion to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability first hand.

The outcome of the day has been the formation of the ‘Kings Cross Business Action Group’, which brings together a number of companies with an interest in Kings Cross to focus on the impact they can have.

To date, two secondees have completed placements, Chris Ottley (June – Dec 05) and Mark Parrott (Feb – Aug 06). A third, Phil Todd, is currently in place. Richard Howson, who has now become chair of the Kings Cross Business Action Group, has supported them.