Author: Owen Philipson

Paul Kelly joins Clear Futures as Partnerships Director

Clear Futures is thrilled to welcome Paul Kelly as our new JV Board Member & Partnerships Director. With his wealth of experience in strategic partnerships and a background in advising local and central governments on place-shaping and regeneration, Paul will play a key role in strengthening our relationships with public sector clients across the North of England and Scotland. 

Charlotte Cordingley, CEO of Clear Futures, shared her excitement about Paul’s addition to the team:

“Paul’s understanding of the public sector landscape and his commitment to creating sustainable, impactful solutions make him a perfect fit for Clear Futures. We look forward to seeing the positive change he’ll help drive for our clients and their communities.” 

As Partnerships Director, Paul will support our public sector clients in achieving their strategic objectives. His work will focus on addressing a range of challenges including town centre regeneration, sustainable infrastructure, and strategic asset management. 

Reflecting on his new role, Paul Kelly stated:

“I am excited to join Clear Futures and to collaborate with our partners in the North of England and Scotland. Clear Futures’ flexible partnership model is uniquely positioned to provide the tailored support public sector clients need to make real progress in their communities.”

Clear Futures works with public sector organisations to deliver flexible, long-term partnerships that drive lasting change. By offering end-to-end support—from securing funding and advisory services to the actual implementation of projects—we help our partners make strides in meeting sustainability targets and overcoming complex built environment challenges. With a focus on regenerative, decarbonised, and community-focused solutions, we’re committed to creating value-driven partnerships that leave a lasting positive impact across the UK. 

Our people

The Clear Futures team brings together a diversity of experiences and complementary skills. We use our public sector and built environment expertise to help you turn short- and long-term development, infrastructure and services goals into meaningful action, and ambitions into reality.

Meet the team
Image of Bolton Mayor and five other stakeholders at the opening of a refurbished leisure centre

Our partnerships

Working with Clear Futures in a long-term strategic partnership is a key way for public sector bodies to deliver sustainable buildings, infrastructure and services – effectively and faster. We’re a trusted partner for a dozen organisations, bringing the expertise needed to help achieve transformative, sustainable solutions to the challenges we all face.

See all of our partnerships

Clear Futures helps Bolton weather the storm

A recovery effort, spearheaded by Clear Futures, helped bring the Bolton Food & Drink Festival back from disaster after heavy winds and gusts of up to 60 mph threatened to cancel the event.

Traders had been setting up stalls all week for the country’s biggest foodie festival, which attracts more than 500,000 over four days at the end of August. Approximately 90% of the event is outside, with around 120 gazebos installed throughout the town centre.

Overnight and early on the morning of the first day of the event, on Friday August 23rd, Storm Lilian severely damaged or significantly displaced gazebos, tents and other events infrastructure causing Bolton Council to postpone the start of the festival.

An extensive clean-up operation was required before the site would be safe for public and traders. Clear Futures has been working with Bolton Council since 2019 as a strategic partner for buildings, infrastructure and services, and offered support to help make the festival happen.

Calling on delivery partners Robertson Facilities Management, Robertson Construction North West, Seddon and Leisure Guard, Clear Futures organised over 40 people to put right the damage to the festival site.

The team re-erected gazebos and signs, righted barriers, cleared debris and assisted traders to set up their stalls.

By the Friday evening, the clean-up and recovery operation was complete and the Festival went ahead as scheduled for the final three days.

Keith Edwards, Clear Futures’ Partnership Director said:

“Friday demonstrated the principles that drive Clear Futures, particularly ‘What’s important to you, is important to us’.  I’m incredibly proud of how our supply chain came together to show that principle in action.

“Bolton is one of the best examples of partnership working I have experienced. It takes a 360-degree attitude, time, and understanding to achieve this, and how we seamlessly came together on Friday and worked as one team showed what a true partnership is capable of.”

Sue Johnson, Chief Executive – Bolton Council said:

“I want to commend Clear Futures for adapting so quickly and going the extra mile when we needed it. The members of the supply chain worked incredibly hard so our visitors could enjoy a weekend full of live music, family entertainment and great food.

“We received so much positive feedback from the traders that were heavily impacted by Storm Lillian on how we turned the site around to be back operational on Saturday.

“Without your support we would have found this difficult to achieve. 

“Bolton is known for running successful events and this weekend, with the support of our staff and our partners, we proved beyond any doubt that this reputation is entirely justified.”

Jon Dyson, Director of Place – Bolton Council commented:

“The formal and informal partnerships that we have in place with Clear Futures are second to none and it was great to see so many people respond so quickly and with such enthusiasm. “You would never have known that Storm Lilian had caused so much damage.”

Find out more: our strategic partnership with Bolton Council

Clear Futures and Bolton Council have been working in partnership since 2019 to boost the town centre’s role as a key player in the Greater Manchester economy. This is coupled with a wider aspiration to attract more high-growth companies that will create the additional jobs, knowledge, skills and technology needed to compete in a global economy.

See what we’ve achieved

Upskilling the Liverpool supply chain

In partnership with Liverpool City Council, Clear Futures is supporting the local supply chain so they can upskill their businesses.

Liverpool City Council’s Business Support Service is hosting a series of four lunchtime webinars in September for Liverpool construction companies.

LCC will be joined by Clear Futures Tier 1 Supply Chain Partners Robertson and Seddon, in addition to LRTG (Liverpool Region Training Group) and CITB (Construction Industry Training Board).

Clear Futures and our partners will provide webinars on:

  • Work Winning – September 18th, September 20th
  • BIM and Digital Construction – September 19th
  • Health & Safety requirements – September 16th
Find out more and register for these webinars

Clear Futures works in partnership with Liverpool City Council to strategically address their local priorities. In developing, designing, procuring, and managing the delivery of sustainable buildings, Clear Futures ensures these facilities drive positive, long-lasting change within the local community.

Delivering Special Educational Needs schools in Liverpool

Clear Futures and Liverpool Council have worked in partnership to deliver projects at pace to provide modern learning spaces for young people with special educational needs. Theexpert supply chain partners, Seddon and Robertson, completed phase 1 of this work.

Read case study
Image of interior of refurbished special educational needs school in Liverpool with sensory toys and equipment

Our strategic partnership with Liverpool

Clear Futures and Liverpool City Council began working together to deliver these education projects at pace to provide modern learning spaces for local young people. As our partnership develops, we will explore opportunities to drive net zero action and provide strategic support to the Council to support local key priorities.

Learn more about our partnership
Liverpool City Council logo in partnership with Clear Futures

Clear Futures supports long-term mentoring programmes for girls in Liverpool

Clear Futures is working with Girls Out Loud in Liverpool which is a social enterprise to deliver ‘The Big Sister mentoring programme’ over a 12-month period, running from 2024 to 2025. The programme provides life-changing mentoring support, focusing on themes such as personal identity, role models, career advice, improving confidence self-esteem self-respect and emotional resilience during their challenging teenage years.

69
hours volunteering
£5,362
Social value add
122 girls
Supported long term

Two mentors from Clear Futures strategic partners Robertson and AECOM, have volunteered to support The Big Sister Programme due to start in July 24 with girls from St Julies Catholic School in the city.

Clear Futures is committed to driving long-term social change through the work all its strategic partnerships and the aims of Girls Out Loud align perfectly with this ethos. Having someone to talk to and guide them through this frame-breaking time when their identity is taking shape, can make a huge difference to their lives in the long term.

Clear Futures Supply Chain Partner, Seddon Construction, attended the ‘Role Model Relay’ event in January 2024, which catered for up to 120 girls from St Julie’s Catholic High School in Liverpool. Inspiring female role models shared their amazing journeys and provided interaction through a structured, supportive speed mentoring format.

Watch the video below to find out more about Girls Out Loud Big Sister programme.

The Big Sister mentoring programme targets the girls who sit in the middle of the cohort and simply cruise and are in danger of becoming invisible as they are neither seriously disruptive, nor super academically gifted. They struggle to find their place and often get lost in the noise and either hide in the corner or look for validation in all the wrong places. At Girls Out Loud we understand these girls very well and believe they have the potential to be shining stars. They are the managers, leaders and entrepreneurs of the future and with some investment from a team of awesome role models to light the way they will learn to believe in themselves, find their voice, step up and shine.

Girls Out Loud

Strategic support for Special Educational Needs in Liverpool

Clear Futures and Liverpool Council have worked in partnership to deliver projects at pace to provide modern learning spaces for young people with special educational needs. Our Tier 1 suppliers delivered these projects and our work continues with the construction of new facilities in phase 2.

Read case study

Our strategic partnership with Liverpool

Clear Futures and Liverpool City Council began working together to deliver education projects at pace to provide modern learning spaces for local young people. As our partnership develops, we will explore opportunities to drive net zero action and provide strategic support to the Council to support local key priorities.

Learn more about our partnership
Liverpool City Council logo in partnership with Clear Futures

Wellsprings project ‘presents an excellent positive image of the industry’

The Bolton office refurbishment project underwent an assessor visit by the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS), resulting in Robertson Construction North West being awarded a perfect site score.

The CCS assessor visit is conducted against the Code of Considerate Practice, comprising three categories: ‘Respect the Community’, ‘Protect the Environment’ and ‘Value their Workforce’.

Categories are scored out of 15, and of the 45 available, the team received a faultless score of 45.

Within the monitor’s report, the site was praised for presenting ‘an excellent positive image of the industry’ and for the team’s efforts in attaining spotless scores in each of the three assessed categories.

Respect the Community

The site was commended for its consideration for the local community through having regular contact with stakeholders and a social value plan that will provide benefits long after the project is complete. This includes hosting mental health talks on-site, fundraising for charities and engaging with local schools and colleges.

Protect the Environment

Utilising the Environmental Management System, the site has mitigated waste and ensured positive environmental performance of the project.

Value their Workforce

With diligent skill and safety checks, flexible individual working practices with a focus on inclusion and diversity, and excellent facilities, the assessor described ‘an excellent, well maintained and supportive workplace’.

As a responsible constructor, we ensure that the successful projects we deliver have the community, environment and our team at the fore. It is excellent that the CCS has recognised our consistent efforts and commitment of ensuring best practice. Congratulations and thank you to the Wellsprings project team.

Robertson North West Regional Managing Director Dirk Pittaway

Bolton Central Library receives award

We are delighted to announce that the Bolton Central Library received the bronze award at the Considerate Constructors Scheme awards in Manchester.

With its reopening in January 2024, the Library has entered a new chapter following a £4.4m transformation by Robertson Group North West on behalf of Clear Futures.

The Grade II-listed building now provides new creative and cultural spaces that modernise and adapt it to meet changing user requirements and serve the wider needs of the community.

Congratulations to all the teams involved for their contributions. It’s great to see the library being recognised on a regional level.

Bolton Central Library project delivers £500k in social value

With its reopening in January, Bolton Central Library has entered into a new chapter following a £4.4m transformation by Robertson Construction North West on behalf of Clear Futures for Bolton Council, while delivering £500k in social value.

Built in the 1930’s and part of the wider Bolton Museum, Archives and Aquarium, the library underwent a restoration and refurbishment to provide new creative and cultural spaces that modernise and adapt the building to meet changing user requirements and serving the wider needs of the community.

While reading, book borrowing and library fundamentals remain, the new spaces focus on users’ priorities, including digital facilities, education and employment information, business support, cultural and creative activities, and health and wellbeing.

The Grade 2 listed building benefits from the provision of additional mezzanine level floor spaces, a new café, and upgraded children and adult library spaces. The project has created a flexible central library plaza space, providing the opportunity for events such as performances, author visits and storytelling alongside a welcoming space for a variety of local community and wellbeing groups.

Committed to creating a meaningful and lasting legacy through community wealth building, Robertson delivered over half a million pounds of social value. This was achieved through using local supply chain, where possible, employing 17 local people, three trainees and 10 apprentices. Robertson supported the Council’s ‘Building Future Skills in Construction Bolton Programme’ by providing work placements to support participants in getting work-ready. Bolton College and local schools also benefited from career sessions and construction-based educational activities.

As part of a Clear Futures Community Neighbourhood Project, Brownlow Fold Church of the Nazarene was selected to benefit from a refurbishment to its kitchen and new youth and community spaces, valued at £10k.

The centre provides modern, multi-use and welcoming youth space and an inclusive, safe place for the community to meet. The new kitchen area has enabled the community outreach programme to expand and offers much-needed support to local residents by delivering cookery education classes, raising awareness of healthy eating and food hygiene. It now provides facilities for families to come together to cook healthy meals in a safe place and signposts people towards college food training courses. 

Dirk Pittaway, Managing Director, Robertson Construction North West, said: “Bolton Central Library’s transformation is greatly enriching users’ experience since its official opening. The high-quality cutting-edge spaces foster creativity, learning and community engagement.

“The library plays such an important role for the community and is a treasured part of Bolton’s history and heritage. Which is why throughout the project we remained respectful of the building’s unique character, making sure that authentic, architectural features remained.

“The transformation delivered by this project goes beyond the building and was far reaching into the local community.”

Cllr Akhtar Zaman, Deputy Leader, Bolton Council, said:“Regeneration is not just about bricks and mortar, it is about improving the lives of our residents by offering better services, experiences, and opportunities.

“The newly renovated Bolton Library is a perfect example of this, creating a modern, versatile, and welcoming space that offers something for all ages.

“Alongside the many benefits of the physical refurbishment, Robertson and Clear Futures have worked with us to support the wider community, create new jobs and boost skills.”

Funded by the Towns Fund scheme led by the Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing, Bolton Central Library is one of many projects being delivered for Bolton Council through a strategic partnership with Clear Futures, a long-term procurement and management vehicle for the UK public sector.

Keith Edwards, Bolton Partnership Director, Clear Futures, commented: “Delivering sustainable solutions to the built environment with expertise, efficiency and value, Clear Futures is proud to support the public sector in strengthening communities. “Bolton Council is a valued strategic partner with a desire to drive economic and social growth, while providing quality services and facilities for the community it serves, which are epitomised by the magnificent Bolton Central Library project.”

Bolton Library: delivering improved outcomes

A £4.4m restoration and refurbishment has provided new creative and cultural spaces that modernise and adapt the building to meet changing user requirements and serve the wider needs of the community.

Read case study

Tackling homelessness in Liverpool 

Clear Futures supported Liverpool’s leading homeless and housing charity during Christmas 2023 with 52 hours of volunteering and a £1200 cash donation. 

Volunteers from Clear Futures along with Seddon and Robertson Construction (Tier 1 Supply Chain Partners) came together to support the charity’s Donation and Essential Items Provision Service. Donning Christmas hats and impersonating Santa’s little helpers, volunteers rolled up their sleeves to unload and sort incoming donations, put together food parcels and create household starter packs.  

Clear Futures’ partnership with Liverpool City Council addresses the long-term needs of the area through strategic support, project development and delivering meaningful social value activities that will have a long-term impact. 

Giving our support to the Whitechapel Centre enables them to support over 4,300 people who were experiencing homelessness, help over 2000 of these people into the right accommodation for their needs, and prevent over 1700 individuals from becoming homeless through advice and interventions. 

52 hours
volunteering
£1200
Cash donation
£2080
Social value add

Volunteers are essential to The Whitechapel Centre. They are the lifeblood of our organisation. We certainly couldn’t support the communities we serve without them. We would like to thank Seddon, Robertson and Clear Futures for volunteering their time today and for their much-needed manpower on the run up to the Christmas holidays.

Ruth McCaughley, Fundraising Manager, The Whitechapel Centre

Strategic support for Special Educational Needs in Liverpool

Clear Futures and Liverpool Council have worked in partnership to deliver projects at pace to provide modern learning spaces for young people with special educational needs. We lent strategic support to prioritise the needs of SEN pupils and fast track an initial phase of refurbishments to three schools, providing a total of 512 SEN school places. Our work continues with the construction of new facilities in phase 2.

Read case study

Our strategic partnership with Liverpool

Clear Futures and Liverpool City Council began working together to deliver education projects at pace to provide modern learning spaces for local young people. As our partnership develops, we will explore opportunities to drive net zero action and provide strategic support to the Council to support local key priorities.

Learn more about our partnership
Liverpool City Council logo in partnership with Clear Futures

36% social value to date

Clear Futures has delivered an incredible 36% of the overall project value in Social Value back to our Participants and their communities since its inception in 2019. This has been benchmarked by the Social Value Portal as being in the top 25% within the construction sector.

36%
SLEV 2019–2023
top 25%
in our sector

UK Government mandate 10% (SLEV) of the Contract Value, and while Clear Futures aspires for 20%, we are delighted that together, our suppliers have achieved 36% of meaningful Social Value within the communities of our Participants, showing the benefit which a long-term Partnership provides.

Below highlights some of the Outcomes achieved which have fed into 10 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Find out more about how we have delivered this value.

If you’d like to understand how we can support you:

A Community Neighbourhood Project to benefit the residents of Bolton

Clear Futures and our supply chain partners follow a collaborative approach to delivering projects and look for ways to maximise outcomes for local communities and residents by delivering impactful social value. Clear Futures and supply chain partner Robertson Construction are working on several regeneration projects on behalf of Bolton Council, including the Library and Wellsprings projects funded by the Towns Fund scheme led by the Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing.

As part of the commitment to leaving additional legacy in the communities where we work, we agreed to deliver a transformational Community Neighbourhood project. 

“Clear Futures and Robertson Construction are key council partners helping us to deliver a number of projects that will transform our town centre and improve the lives of our residents. The outstanding work they have done at Brownlow Fold Church of the Nazarene shows a wider commitment to supporting the local community and creating a lasting legacy. Alongside this, the Building Future Skills In Construction Programme is providing local people with valuable workplace experience.”

– Bolton Council Deputy Leader, Cllr Akhtar Zaman

Dirk Pittaway, Regional Managing Director, Robertson Construction North West said:

“At Robertson, we are committed to adding value for our customers by delivering social value, which really makes a difference in the communities where we operate.  

“The Community Neighbourhood project enabled us to work with our supply chain partners, getting support from trades and excess materials from one of our live projects to support Brownlow Fold Church of the Nazarene to improve the service they offer the local community. 

It’s important to us and our customers that the social value we deliver is meaningful. With Bolton Council undertaking several regeneration projects to benefit the wider community, we have been working closely to support its ‘Building Future Skills In Construction Bolton Programme’. As part of the programme, we provide two-week work placements on our sites that  support and train people to get work-ready. Completing the programme gives participants references along with their work experience and skills that will help them into employment.”

The Community Neighbourhood Project got underway in Autumn 2022, when the team met with different community and voluntary organisations in Bolton to identify a suitable project where a ‘DIY SOS’ style project, worth around £10k, could be delivered to improve spaces where local residents meet, socialise and receive support. 

A small application process was held with the help of Bolton CVS to review the deliverability of the projects. Brownlow Fold Church of the Nazarene was selected as the ‘Community Neighbourhood Project’ due to the wide-reaching impact the transformed spaces will have on residents. Two other projects stood out and as a result, Bolton Deaf Society and Hall i’ th’ Wood Community Garden were each awarded £500 to support their projects. 

A renovation to help people in need

Brownlow Fold Church of the Nazarene needed new spaces to continue and expand its community outreach. We completed a refurbishment that provides a fresh, more welcoming youth space and an inclusive, safe place for the community to meet. The new kitchen means the community group can offer much-needed support to local residents and can now give cookery education classes, raising awareness of healthy eating and fresh ingredients to make the most of food hampers. The church has wider ambitions to roll out training courses in food hygiene and Clear Futures and Robertson Construction have supported them with introductions to Bolton College so they can refer individuals for additional training and qualifications. 

Beth Ford, Pastor at Brownlow Fold Church of the Nazarene, said:

“Brownlow Fold Church of the Nazarene is located in the centre of a housing estate in Bolton, which reflects a hugely diverse community of people. During the last year, we have been deeply saddened to recognise the increasing needs of people in our community, mainly as a result of increasing costs of living. We began to work closely with several partners in Bolton, including the Council, Bolton Community and Voluntary Services, Bolton at Home and Urban Outreach. Collectively, we continue to make every effort to reach those people most in need, and in doing so, we also attempt to bring our community closer together. We recognise that we are better together!”

The renovations of our kitchen and youth space have been an absolute blessing – not just to us, but to those people in our community that we already serve and to those we hope to meet in the coming months.

– Beth Ford, District Youth Pastor for the Church of the Nazarene, British Isles South District and Pastor at Brownlow Fold Church of the Nazarene

“We have so many plans to utilise our newly refurbished spaces, including running basic cookery classes, offering our space for 1-2-1 counselling and support, providing a safe, interactive space for our local youth, and bringing more partners together to make Bolton a great place to live. 

We are more than delighted with the renovations and cannot thank Clear Futures and Robertson Construction enough for this wonderful opportunity to do so much more in our community. In early September, we will celebrate the first birthday of our community café, Roots in Fresh Ground, which opened at the end of August 2022. The new kitchen ensures we can not only continue with this amazing café, through which we are meeting with so many people in our community, but hopefully, we can also celebrate so much more in the coming months and years ahead.”

The youth space is now a cleaner and more modern area designed to help keep local young people off the streets through group activities and as a hub to host clubs for the young people. The Community Neighbourhood Project has upgraded the lighting, redecorated the space and installed a TV screen, making the space more comfortable and inviting. A priority is to increase the number of young people accessing the building and offer a safe and inclusive environment with a true community feeling.

Project details

  • 116 hours of volunteering over a 5-day period.
  • Brand new kitchen installed, funded by donations-in-kind from Robertson Construction North West and its supply chain.
  • Subcontractor Reds Joinery volunteered to remove existing kitchen and install the new units.
  • Subcontractor Ameon carried out electrical testing and installed new energy and cost-efficient LED bulbs. 
  • Removing older storage units and a brand new TV and installation in the youth space funded by Robertson Construction North West.
  • Painting and decorating of the youth space, including cleaning, and replacing carpet tiles, funded by Clear Futures.
  • Movable stainless steel kitchen island for interactive workshops, funded by Clear Futures.
Clear Futures Community Neighbourhood Project

Our strategic partnership with Bolton Council

Clear Futures and Bolton Council have been working in partnership since 2019 to boost the town centre’s role as a key player in the Greater Manchester economy. This is coupled with a wider aspiration to attract more high-growth companies that will create the additional jobs, knowledge, skills and technology needed to compete in a global economy.

See what we’ve achieved