A North East TV architect has announced plans to bring his charity home, at a business event this week.
Sunderland born George Clarke, whose presenting career has spanned more than 20 years, has revealed plans to refocus the work of his educational charity, Ministry of Building Innovation and Education (MOBIE), on his home city and the wider North East region.
Speaking at Sunderland Business Festival, as part of a day of inspirational sessions hosted by former BBC Look North presenter Jeff Brown, George shared insight into the work of his charity, which he launched in 2017, with the ambition of giving young people a voice for the future of homes.
The charity has worked across the UK including on flagship projects with London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, but George’s love of the North East – and a passion project in the city, that he is set to share more on in the new year – meant he was keen to sharpen MOBIE’s focus, to deliver more for the region he was born in.
He said: “MOBIE does some amazing work and I’m super proud of the difference it has made across the UK, but the North East is a place I am incredibly proud to come from and I want to bring the work of MOBIE home and deliver meaningful change in a part of the world I owe everything to.
“I am so excited by the physical transformation I am seeing in Sunderland and across the North East. The Mayor, Kim McGuinness, has so many exciting plans for the region and I can see so much opportunity to contribute to them.
“Plans to deliver more and better housing in the region will unlock opportunities to create a better built environment. I want the next generation to feed into that, and create the communities they will live among in the future.”
The charity works with young people to inspire them about the ways in which they can shape better communities, as well as working with policy-shapers and changemakers to influence the built environment.
George spoke of hopes of building a MOBIE community in the North East to inspire a new generation about the art of the possible when it comes to building innovative places to live now and in the future.
George hopes that by being grounded in the North East – when the charity moves into the Housing Innovation and Construction Skills Academy (HICSA) at Sheepfolds – he can work closely with young people studying from the centre to open their mind about the ways in which the world we build can support better ways of living.
HICSA, in Sheepfolds, is being developed in partnership with Sunderland City Council, Sunderland College and MOBIE, and will provide education, training and skills to allow local people to develop sustainable homes. It will become the learning place of hundreds of young people each year.
“The Government have pledged to build 1.5m homes during the course of this government and a commitment to building new towns. I’m a new town boy – I was raised in Washington. It was an incredible place to live with so much amenity that helped bring the community together.
“Through projects such as HICSA, I genuinely believe that the North East now has a real opportunity to play a leading role in developing the most green, the most sustainable and the most innovative new towns in the world. I want MOBIE to play a part in that.”
To find out more about MOBIE, visit www.mobie.org.uk.