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It was the year “home” became more important than ever, the year Britain stocked up, hunkered down and ordered in.

It was the year we all missed our relatives, missed our local and somehow missed a delivery even though we were in all day.

It was the year of mute/unmute and sharing screens, of running out of toilet roll and discovering how hard it is to teach kids.

It was the year more and more people realised what we’ve always known: that it’s important to make home a great place to be.

We’ve always believed in the power of design to change lives.

And, despite everything 2020 threw at us, we continued to transform buildings, build new communities and create neighbourhoods where people and businesses can thrive.

We cemented new partnerships, won awards and broke new ground.

We embraced Live well by design, launched a revolutionary new design tool and found time to save a dazed goose.

We kept on growing.

And kept on smiling.

Welcome to
our review
of an extraordinary year

We had meetings interrupted by our furry friends

"House by Urban Splash have created a revolutionary new tool which paves the way for consumer involvement. It's a cracking user experience too."

George Clarke on the House by Urban Splash configurator, June 2020
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We got bored of hearing these words

We made it onto a brown tourist information road sign with our Royal William Yard development – something that has always been on Tom’s bucket-list

We welcomed our first residents at Piercy Street

We managed some socially distanced team walks

We welcomed 6 babies

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We all got setup to WFH with the help of our amazing IT team

We secured planning for 628 homes across 4 sites with planning pending for a further 113

We bought our Park Hill security dog 810 tins of dog food, 200 bags of dog biscuits and 172 bones. He's worth every penny

We got crafty during lockdown

We won 16 gongs, including an Estates Gazette Award, two prestigious Housing Design Awards and an award from Homes England

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Our head office team accidentally stockpiled 30kg of sugar instead of 3kg

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We shared our vision for the future of House by Urban Splash with our House Rules book

We got Carl Holt, our Beehive Mill Building Manager and former Sankeys doorman, his very own sign

We successfully reduced the waste per Town House module by 37% saving £50k per year at our factory

We found this incredible timelapse showing the Smokehouses at Smiths Dock, created by ianmacphotos

We ordered in the sushi, cracked open the Asahi, and did a Japanese lunch and learn at our head office

Jon Lacon took home the trophy from our annual golf day

We had a socially distanced stocktake at our House by Urban Splash factory in Alfreton

Bookies stats:

32 bonus ball winners shared £2,044

6 winners of lotto bingo took home a combined £540

10 Euro-millions syndicates and we still arent millionaires!

We showcased one of our biggest spaces at Boat Shed in this brand new video

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We photographed an archaeological dig that was completed at our Northstowe site – see above for treasures!

We awarded Scarlett Prince, aged 7, some book vouchers for working her artistic magic on our Town House colouring sheet

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Emily Handslip, our Commercial Director, found a new way to make Teams meetings more fun

We turned Royal William Yard blue in support of our incredible keyworkers

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We were inspired by our residents at Smith's Dock who started lockdown disco phenomenon back in March

We all realised theres 30 days of September, April, June and November, all the rest have 31, except March which has 8,000

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We saved a Canadian Goose

We had some new residents settling down at Lakeshore

We made progress at Avro. Swipe to see!

52% of us gave someone a trim during lockdown

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We had feedback from customers that reminded why we do what we do

We used carbon balanced paper for our marketing brochures, meaning that through World Land Trust, this year alone weve balanced the equivalent of 2,154kg of carbon dioxide, enabling the protection of 2,315m2 of critically threatened tropical forests

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Nathan Cornish, our Group Director, speaks at EG’s The Future of Birmingham virtual event

We were delighted to see Grace Byrne, aged 3, had made her very own Town House

We had more than 24,262 Team calls – now that's alot of chitter-chatter

We welcomed Suzy Jones as our Director of Future Lab, Claire Kober as our Independent Director for House by Urban Splash, and Tom Jarman as our Director of Architecture

We secured on average one press article per day

Tony Colville introduced us to Hey Girls, an ethical supplier who tackle period poverty, and will forever be known as Tampon Tony

We created some incredible Town House MK3 prototypes to test cladding at our factory in Alferton

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Honestly, my worst purchase of 2020 was a 2020 planner

On average, our site managers at Park Hill do 2,250,000 steps per year!

We took our colleagues from Sekisui House to watch a game at Old Trafford

Ocean Studios at Royal William Yard held at printmaking event with Anthony Burrill

We watched our residents at Port Loop hold three film nights during lockdown

We donated £70,000 through the Urban Splash Charitable Trust

We got a socially distanced site visit from Andy Street, the Mayor of Birmingham, at Port Loop

We collaborated with Biscuiteers to create these adorable Town House biscuits for our staff

Our finance team went paperless!

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We trained 28 staff members in Mental Health First Aid

Jonathan had some bad luck whilst out cycling around one of our sites

We raised £725 for Cash for Kids, a charity that provides Christmas gifts to the 1/3 of children who live in poverty in the UK

We launched our online music event Yard Jams Live, which saw four acts perform over four weeks

Olly Wigglesworth, our Head of Design, submitted this design to the Life Through Lockdown poster competition. Life Through Lockdown are a collective who are doing an amazing job at raising some pennies for the glorious NHS

We produced 181 House modules this year alone at our factory in Alfreton!

Watch this short video for a quick look inside our factory, where we build all our House by Urban Splash homes

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We clapped for our key workers

We won the Placemaking Award at the South West Insider Residential Property Awards for Royal William Yard

...and the Deal of the Year award at the North West Insider Awards

We welcomed lots of new staff members

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We picked up two Housebuilder awards for our Smiths Dock development and Virtual Viewings during lockdown

We worked on bids throughout the year, with a total bids sent for over 2,800 houses

We barely saw our beloved head office

We were all surprised with a Christmas gift hamper from Social Supermarket, thanks to our wonderful Board and Directors

We stayed safe, we looked out for each other, we did things our way, Bring on 2021, and many a brighter day