News

Water and waste company Severn Trent is launching a new community fund that will give millions of pounds to the communities where it operates, and is looking for people to get involved by becoming part of the Fund’s customer panel.

Every year, the Fund will give away 1% of the company’s profits to a range of groups and schemes that have been selected by the customer panel, and with the scheme due to launch early next year, it’s also time for community projects to start thinking about applying.

Daisy Powell, Community Fund Manager said: “It’s incredibly important to us to be right at the heart of the communities where we operate because we know we touch millions of people’s lives every day, so we want to give something back and this feels like the right thing to do.

“We know there are thousands of groups out there that could benefit from a grant from our new fund and we’re incredibly keen to make a real difference to those communities. We also wanted to make sure our customers had a say, which is why we’ve created the customer panel so the same people who use our services every day can help us decide which projects to support.”

The company is currently in the process of creating the panel, which will meet up to review applications and to ultimately decide where the grants will go, with the Fund opening for applications in January 2020.

The Fund will support projects which can demonstrate a clear link to three elements of community wellbeing:

• People: Projects that help people to lead a healthier life and gain new skills;

• Place: Ideas that help create better places to live in and use; and

• Environment: Schemes that will help look after the natural environment, and give people greater access to that environment or help look after water.

“Of course, given what we do, we’ll also welcome and encourage applications for projects that have something to do with water because that’s our bread and butter,” said Daisy. “The Fund is there for everyone, and we want to be able to help and support community projects that are most important to our customers, so if you have a community project that could benefit from the fund, please get in touch.”

For more information on the Community Fund or to register your interest, please visit: stwater.co.uk/communityfund or if you’re interested in sitting on the panel, you can apply here: severntrent.com/careers/community_fund/