Volunteers and home partners make use of some of the donated items
A LARGE consignment of building materials worth around £5,000 has been donated to a Liverpool housing charity by DIY and trade retailer Wickes.
Housing People Building Communities (HPBC) has already used many of the building supplies at its 32 homes site off Kingsley Road, in Toxteth. Larger items, including decking, laminate flooring and kitchen units will be sold via the charity’s Goods2go eBay store to raise much needed funds.
HPBC builds affordable homes for sale, using volunteer labour and donations of money, materials and gifts in kind. Home partners who will eventually live in the properties spend 500 hours working on site – known as ‘sweat equity’ – in return for a £10,000 discount.
The donated materials were all new and sourced from the Wickes distribution centre in Wakefield. They had been used or unpackaged for use at the Wickes annual conference at the beginning of the year and could not be re-sold, making them surplus to requirements.
Matthew Gaunt, head of brand communications for Wickes, commented:
“We were thrilled to be presented with the opportunity to supply materials to HPBC. It’s great to be able to help raise awareness for the work that is being carried out by hard-working volunteers to provide affordable homes to those who need them most.”
HPBC is approaching the end of its Kingsley Road project and is now actively seeking new opportunities to develop more affordable housing of its kind, having won multiple awards for affordable housing, innovation, community engagement and partnership approach to development.
Liza Parry, the charity’s chief executive said:
“It was an extremely generous donation and everything will either be used on site or sold to raise funds so we can continue building. For example, students from Hugh Baird College in Bootle have used tile adhesive and grout to finish off the bathrooms in some of our final homes. We’re hugely grateful to Wickes for their support – their donation will save us an awful lot of money.”
The treasure trove of donated goods also included tools, safety wear and painting supplies, which all came in useful during a recent home partner teambuild day. And policing students from Liverpool John Moore University made good use of the painting overalls when emulsioning some of the homes.