Urban Union Wins Two Awards at The Scottish Home Awards 2020
We are thrilled to have been recognised at the Scottish Home Awards 2020 with two award wins.
Following last year’s success with the award for Affording Housing Development of the Year (Private Sale) for Muirton Living in Perth, we have been awarded both the Community Contribution Award and the Affording Housing Development of the Year (Private Sale) for Laurieston Living at our highly successful Gorbals site in Glasgow.
Over 100 housebuilders, housing associations and support businesses from across Scotland were entered into the awards.
Winning the Community Contribution award is particularly poignant for us here at Urban Union as our focus isn’t just on building homes but also creating vibrant communities. Community can have a profoundly positive impact on the mental health and wellbeing of citizens at a time when the quality of our living spaces and the value of our communities has never been in sharper focus.
Embedded in our developments is the ongoing involvement of the local community. Our aim is to build a long-term relationship with the community and to enhance our offering by promoting healthy lifestyles and community interaction through attractive streets, public spaces and gardens.
For example, we support the Citizen’s Theatre, local school children helping to plant trees at the Pennywell Nature Garden, celebrating local heroes with our Living Legends arts project at LauriestonLiving, running apprenticeship programmes, fostering links to local schools and colleges, to name but a few.
This ties in nicely with our win for the Affordable Housing Development of the Year award for Laurieston Living, as it is here that we partnered with local arts organisation WAVEparticle to create a five-year arts strategy for the area with the ambition of connecting it to the rich history of Laurieston, its people and the aspirations of the community. This idea was sparked from engagement with the local community which forms the cornerstone of our approach to development.
Laurieston Living was our first development and it continues to go from strength to strength with multiple phases already delivered. In fact, we recently handed over our 1,000th property in Scotland to our buyers at this development who were delighted with their new home. The development supports community aspirations and brings the physical improvements, housing and facilities to stimulate social and economic growth.
The key to our success at Laurieston – and in fact all of our developments – are the partnerships we have forged including residents, New Gorbals Housing Association and Glasgow City Council.
We look forward to seeing what the year ahead brings, with all of its challenges!
Neil McKay, Managing Director
