Places for People, a leading UK affordable homes led placemaker, has been named a winner of the ‘Proud to Help’ award in the 2020 Building Awards.

The Proud to Help award was a new category for this year’s awards, acknowledging the work that many companies have undertaken to support others during the pandemic. In a year that has been dominated by Covid-19, Places for People has provided help and support to communities, customers and businesses.

Hosted by Building Magazine, the Building Awards are open to companies and projects from right across the built environment. Keen to acknowledge these extreme times this year, the Proud to Help Awards were created to recognise outstanding acts of kindness.

Projects that Places for People assisted with included: making over 60,000 calls to more than 12,500 customers to ensure their welfare; and donating to food banks by providing food, baby essentials and furniture and sourcing PPE for Public sector organisations using through Group company, Procurement Hub. The company also ran online webinars for SME’s and provided 52 grants to offer emergency essentials for people in need.

David Cowans, Chief Executive at Places for People said, “I am immensely proud of the work and commitment that my colleagues and our wider stakeholder partners have shown towards others during the pandemic. This year has been challenging for many people and we will continue to do what we can to support our customers, colleagues and communities.”

Places for People owns or manages more than 209,000 homes, operates over 100 leisure facilities, has assets of £4.8bn, and will deliver 2,603 affordable homes by 2024 through its partnership with Homes England.