The UK's coastal communities face unique challenges. Around 10% of the nation's population lives in coastal towns and cities – places that have experienced decades of decline and where residents have often felt isolated and left behind.
In Great Yarmouth, however, a wave of transformation is underway. Investment into the town’s built environment is having a real impact on the area’s look and feel while expanding the available amenities and boosting opportunities for training, skills development, and high-value employment.
This regeneration has seen Great Yarmouth become an exemplar of what forward-thinking leadership and working in partnership with innovative, committed stakeholders can achieve. The town has recently earned plaudits for its ability to generate substantial social benefits, having been awarded the Local Government Chronicle’s Council of the Year award in 2024.
A working partnership
At Morgan Sindall Construction, we’ve been working alongside Great Yarmouth Borough Council during much of this journey, bringing to life a wide range projects over the years, including:
- Artemis House – where we collaborated with Proserv to deliver a purpose-built Centre of Excellence to support Great Yarmouth’s energy services sector and create high-value employment opportunities.
- Great Yarmouth Charter Academy – we performed the refurbishment and expansion of the school for the Department for Education, increasing the academy’s capacity from 750 to 1,350, and creating an additional 150 places for a new cohort of sixth form students.
- Northgate Primary School – we converted the previous Infant School into a £2.9million stand-alone Primary School.
During each of these projects, we strived to deliver as much social value as possible. And to take this a step further in recent developments for Great Yarmouth, our Eastern Counties team has committed to incorporating as many social value initiatives as possible throughout construction. Welcoming the next generation of construction professionals with open arms and uplifting the local community.
Our latest successes
Recently, our Eastern Counties business has completed a further two significant developments in the town - the £26m Marina Centre leisure facility which opened in August 2022 and creating a new community garden and outdoor play area in the Middlegate housing estate. The team is also in the final stages of delivering The Place, a £17 million regeneration scheme converting the former Palmers department store into a state-of-the-art public library and university learning centre.
To date, these three projects have generated more than £15 million in social value for Great Yarmouth. This includes a long list of initiatives and creative efforts to leverage the construction activity in order to help the town’s residents. For example, there have been over 526 apprentice weeks, 159 volunteering hours, and almost £5.5k in charitable donations.
As Middlegate and The Place were procured through the SCAPE construction framework, local communities further benefitted from the social value initiatives embedded into SCAPE’s process.
Building More Than Structures
One of the primary ways that our work in Great Yarmouth is leaving a lasting legacy is by upskilling young people and introducing them to careers in the construction sector. This approach has the dual benefit of boosting training opportunities while also solving a major challenge within the construction industry, which faces a critical shortage of talent.
As the skills gap coincides with an urgent need to regenerate areas like Great Yarmouth, the investment exemplified by projects such as the Marina Centre and The Place creates unique chances to address both issues simultaneously by acting as a catalyst for physical and social regeneration.
We believe it’s incredibly important to introduce young people to live construction sites, helping them gain first-hand experience from the outset. Additionally, site visits often kickstart students’ journeys into the industry with work placements and full-time construction employment being the obvious steps. At The Place, we’ve welcomed 70 students from East Norfolk Sixth Form and East Coast College to attend the site, with their courses ranging from Design, Surveying, and Planning, to Business Studies, Art Foundation and Interior Design, and Brickwork. Additionally, we awarded two T-Level Students a 45-day industrial work placement and gave three brickwork students work placements.
Addressing the Skills Crisis
Two of the local bricklaying students, Dylan Piggin and Richard Liffen, both aged 18, typify the transformative power of such developments. Having been awarded 2-week work placements, they demonstrated such enthusiasm and commitment that they were quickly offered full time positions with our supply chain partner, Quantrill Contractors.
Their journey from visiting the site as students at East Coast College to gaining work placements and eventually being awarded full-time employment on a live building site demonstrates what can be achieved by connecting education providers with the construction industry.
Dylan Piggin explained how his experience began: “The college organised a site tour of The Place with Morgan Sindall. After I got my Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card, I spoke to my tutor about the possibility of work experience there. He spoke to the Site Manager, who in turn reached out to their supply chain. Quantrill Contractors initially offered me the chance to gain two-week’s work experience, however after just a few days I was told I would be taken on full time.”
This was a great result for Dylan, who, “was through the roof to hear I was being taken on full time”. When reflecting on his time at The Place, Dylan said: "The theory I was taught at college has put me in a really good position, but now that I'm on site, I'm gaining so much hands-on experience and working on an older building offers loads of challenging opportunities."
Richard's experience echoes this sentiment: "I would argue that I learned more in the two weeks on site than the two years in college. Being here has taught me about all the different types of bricks, their purpose, and how to match and blend new bricks to maintain that old-style look."
He added that working at The Place offered him a chance to “get involved in other areas of construction, like demolition, labouring and bricklaying and other trades. I’m basically a sponge, looking to absorb as much as I can by watching the other tradesmen, seeing what they're doing and constantly asking questions.”
Both apprentices see their work as more than just construction though. "This building was abandoned and left to rot, but now we have the opportunity to give it a new purpose, to rebuild it and make it into a place of learning," Richard explains. His ambition extends beyond personal development: "Hopefully one day I get to a point where I have enough experience that I can take on my own apprentice and pass on the skills I have learnt."
From classroom to site
David Newall, Brickwork Lecturer at East Coast College, emphasises the importance of practical experience: "This has been the most successful year I've had in my career, having 14 out of 17 learners go into industry. While I can tell them my stories and examples, we can't actually do anything live.”
He explained that the direct link between learning and jobs was a valuable but previously missing piece of the puzzle. “We've never had that link up with industry before, which means we've not been able to securely connect those students with employment. So, this work experience and placement with Morgan Sindall has been a massive opportunity.”
Thanks to this relationship David has been able to “bring students to sites like this, which gives them the motivation and interest to follow that into employment".
Commitment to Community
The connection between a town’s buildings and its communities needs respecting and our teams spend a lot of time thinking about how to ensure the built environment is best tailored to the people that live, work and relax there.
The flagship Marina Centre exemplifies this approach. Since opening, this modern leisure facility has transformed the seafront, attracting more than 170,000 visitors and boosting coastal footfall by 20% in its first year. This successfully demonstrates how thoughtful regeneration can create immediate community benefits while laying foundations for long-term growth.
Our commitment to enhancing local spaces is further evidenced through projects like the creation of a 2,500-square-metre community garden, providing vital green space for residents. From the large-scale to the small, we’re also always on the lookout for those little pieces of added value which can be really appreciated. For example, we recently restored Great Yarmouth Athletics Club's storage cabin, supporting the local sports programme.
Dylan summed up how his experience on a vital Great Yarmouth regeneration project affected him personally as a local resident, explaining:
“It’s a great feeling to work on such an iconic building. Whenever I pass it now or am with my family, I’m pointing out the areas that I have worked on. There’s definitely a real sense of pride to know that I’ve worked on it and helped breathe life back into the building.”
Richard agreed with this personal impact and how schemes like this are needed in the town, saying:
“I feel like Great Yarmouth could use a bit more investment to help provide more job opportunities. I’m very happy with myself to have played a part in rebuilding this old building and giving it new life.”
Looking to the Future
The regeneration and social value initiatives outlined in this article showcase how, through strategic partnerships with Great Yarmouth Borough Council, local colleges, our supply chain, and our commitment as a delivery partner on the SCAPE Construction Framework, we're not just addressing the construction sector's skills shortage – we're helping to build a more vibrant, sustainable future for the Great Yarmouth community.
The cyclical nature of how this investment generates further benefits and ultimately helps to lift up communities was illustrated by Dylan, who said that: “Getting this work experience has unlocked the next stage of my career, as lots of sites are looking for experience. Hopefully one day I get to a point where I have enough experience that I can take on my own apprentice and pass on the skills that I have learnt.”
David underlined just what an impact the right motivation at the right time can provide, explaining that “for Richard and Dylan, what a journey! They’ve really dug deep, put in the extra time and now they are absolutely flying.”
This all goes to show how developments like the Marina Centre and The Place are proving that investment in construction and local talent can rebuild not just structures, but also futures.