News & Views

  Celebrating milestones at YMCA Wimbledon This week we marked a major milestone in the redevelopment of the YMCA Wimbledon.  Despite the weather, the Mayoress of Merton, Councillor Joan Henry, the Deputy Mayoress of Merton, Councillor Agatha Akyigyina OBE, the Deputy Leader of Merton Council Councillor Eleanor Stringer, and local ward representative Councillor Paul Kohler joined us on site for a ‘topping out’ ceremony. The new, state of the art building will provide 121 ensuite hostel rooms with shared kitchen facilities, giving residents a better quality of life and supporting them back into independent living.  YMCA residents and the Wimbledon community will also benefit from new and improved, affordable facilities, including a gym, bigger studio space for fitness classes, a children’s area and brand-new YMCA café.

  Project Completion – Wimbledon High School for Girls’ Neilcott has successfully delivered multiple projects for Girls’ Day School Trust, including the first phases 1A & 1B of Wimbledon High School for Girls’ ‘Ex-Humilibus’ masterplan.Following successful delivery of these complex vertical/side extension and refurbishment works, we negotiated directly with the Trust to undertake Phase 2 of the development to deliver a new £7m Sixth Form Centre.This project has now completed and the new three storey sixth form centre, which includes a large hall and basement, has been handed over.  We hope that the students enjoy their exceptional new facilities that match the outstanding teaching provided at the school.

Abbey Court School wins Medway Design and Regeneration Award 2022! The Medway Design and Regeneration Awards celebrate the highly impressive catalogue of innovative building projects across Medway. Chosen by a judging panel comprised of experts from across the planning, design and architectural industry, we are proud to announce that our Abbey Court SEN School project has won the category for Public Buildings, including education. The judges were impressed by the vision and achievements of this project on a limited budget.  In particular, the judges felt that the school had clearly been designed to meet the needs of the children, demonstrating the importance of engaging with a head teacher and staff who fully understand the needs of the pupils.  We would like to congratulate Peter Taylor Associates on their achievement and all the wider Neilcott team that contributed to bringing this award-winning design to fruition. 

Award Win for Cromwell Road! We are delighted that our residential scheme for Reigate & Banstead Borough Council has been awarded the 2022 LABC award for the ‘Best Large Social Housing Development’ in the South East region. The Local Authority Building Excellence Regional Awards are the largest business to business awards in the building control sector. They celebrate buildings and design teams that have overcome the challenges of complex technical and construction issues. The scheme delivers 32 highly sustainable new homes for affordable rent, along with 360sqm of commercial space at ground floor – congratulations to all those involved in making this scheme a success!

£1.5m Lister Community School expansion is our latest project completed for Newham. This follows the successful completion of 19 education schemes over the last 10 years with values ranging from £1m through to £21.5m. Collaborative relationships, proven value for money, efficiency and quality performance influenced our appointment through a competitive two-stage design and build procurement. The complex remodelling and extension works included: Construction of a new steel framed extension to form the Library Conversion of an existing external garden area into an internal science class room, along with remodelling of the existing science class room Converting the existing dance studio into a lecture theatre, including the installation of 2 mezzanine floors A steel frame extension to the front of the site to provide a of a new community café and fitness suite Remodelling of the existing drama areas Installation of a new canopy and infilling of the existing voids in the first floor of the entrance area Internal remodelling of existing classrooms Congratulations to all involved in getting this project completed and ready to welcome the students back for the new academic year! Project Completion – Lister Community School £1.5m Lister Community School expansion is our latest project completed for Newham. This follows the successful completion of 19 education schemes over the last 10 years with values ranging from £1m through to £21.5m. Collaborative relationships, proven value for money, efficiency and quality performance influenced our appointment through a competitive two-stage design and build procurement. The complex remodelling and extension works included: Construction of a new steel framed extension to form the Library Conversion of an existing external garden area into an internal science class room, along with remodelling of the existing science class room Converting the existing dance studio into a lecture theatre, including the installation of 2 mezzanine floors A steel frame extension to the front of the site to provide a of a new community café and fitness suite Remodelling of the existing drama areas Installation of a new canopy and infilling of the existing voids in the first floor of the entrance area Internal remodelling of existing classrooms Congratulations to all involved in getting this project completed and ready to welcome the students back for the new academic year!

Supporting staff wellbeing – ‘My Healthy Advantage’ app We have been offering an Employee Assistance Programme through Health Assured for over 5 years. With increasing focus on the importance of staff physical & mental health, we are encouraging all employees to take advantage of Health Assured’s ‘My Healthy Advantage’ app. The app allows employees to access mini health checks, counselling services through web-chat or video call, tailored health & wellbeing advice, as well as content on a range of topics including sleep, stress, physical & mental health, exercise, healthy eating, grief, finances & family pressures. We encourage participation by hosting quarterly step count competitions, with prizes up for grabs!

Paying tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II In light of the national bank holiday recently announced, Neilcott offices & sites will be closed on Monday 19th September to mark the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We, at Neilcott, pay tribute to the life of steadfast service and duty of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Throughout her 70-year reign, she served the people of the UK and the Commonwealth with dignity, offering eduring leadership through ever-changing times. We are grateful for her extraordinary contribution to public life.

Helping staff with cost of living An Employee Ownership Trust, our employees are literally the core of our business. They are a loyal and incredibly hardworking team, so we are giving all employees a one-off payment of £1000 to help offset inflationary cost of living pressures and increasing energy prices.

Introducing Thrive! We are continually investing in our social value delivery to help clients meet their Social Value Model obligations – supporting local jobs, training and growth. By working together to create bespoke Social Value Plans with agreed commitments to meet their priorities and local needs, we ensure that our projects deliver lasting social, economic and environmental benefits to local communities. We have recently invested in ‘Thrive’, an online platform used to capture, monitor and report our social value impact. Using this technology, we can create bespoke data dashboards for each project, allowing complete visibility of progress towards agreed commitments. Metrics are aligned to the government Social Value Model, allowing us to easily capture and showcase the financial benefit of our local employment and skills training, community investment, employee volunteering and other social value activities.

Project Completion – Brighton High School Our team at Brighton High School are pleased to have completed the refurbishment works to three sites across the school campus. We commenced works to the Montpelier site at the end of 2020, transforming the existing senior school and sixth form into a vibrant community hub.  As a result of the projects successful completion, we were awarded two further refurbishment projects at the Vicarage Building and Temple Building.  We have now completed the configuration of both buildings, creating comfortable, functional teaching spaces as well as a new school reception, coffee shop, library/study, music centre and sixth form space. Whilst on site we have been pleased to engage with some of the students, conducting site tours and working with small groups on a quantity surveying task.  We hope that the students enjoy their new spaces when they return after their well-earned summer break!