Vistry's Charlotte Olver wins Star Award at prestigious event

Charlotte Olver, group head of social value at Vistry Partnerships, has won a major award at this year’s Housebuilder Awards.

Charlotte won the Housebuilder Star Award, which is given to an individual who has made a major contribution to the housebuilding sector in the last twelve months.

Vistry Group was shortlisted in four other categories including Best Staff Development Award, Best Community Initiative, Best Sustainability Initiative and Best Retirement Scheme.

Charlotte was recognised for leading the delivery of Vistry Partnerships’ nationwide Skills Academies - innovative training programmes designed to encourage more people into construction, whilst combatting the skills shortage affecting the industry.

Since the first Academy was held in Plymouth in 2017, Charlotte has overseen 13 Academies, with six more planned in the next 12 months alone. During that time she has played an instrumental role forging partnerships with local authorities, schools and colleges, and the local supply chain to ensure the successful delivery of each Academy. 

To date more than 8,354 live-site experience workshops weeks and community engagement programmes have been held, meaning 3,000 community members have benefitted from an Academy. This has already created over £6.5m worth of social value. Her commitment to delivering social value is now an integral part of Vistry Group: earlier this year the business secured a new £500m sustainable loan, which includes a commitment to training another 550 Skills Academy learners by 2025.

Charlotte said: “I’m honoured to have won this award and feel privileged to be collecting it for doing something I love. Since I joined Vistry Partnerships I’ve been passionate about helping local people, many of them long term unemployed, to learn the valuable entry level skills that are needed to start a career in construction. 

“The Academies started off as smaller projects in the South West, but through the hard work and support of many valuable colleagues and partners, we’ve been able to reach more than 3,000 people already. We’ve got many more academies ahead of us and I’m looking forward to helping more people discover a career in construction.”

Held at a ceremony in London, the Housebuilder Awards are now in their 19th year. Supported by the HBF and NHBC, they are the industry’s own awards and recognise the businesses and individuals who are improving quality, design, efficiency and customer care in housebuilding. 

The event was hosted by actor and comedian Sir Lenny Henry.

For more information, visit www.vistrygroup.co.uk