Wienerberger, manufacturer of wall, roof and landscaping products has donated £2200 to support Liverpool-based housing charity, Housing People, Building Communities (HPBC) after the theft of valuable building materials.

The incident took place on the evening of Thursday 4 June and left HPBC missing 23 doors, 17 radiators, four cookers, four hobs, two sinks and a number of electrical items, which were all in storage awaiting installation the following week.

Wienerberger’s UK division was recently awarded £2200 by the worldwide group’s CBME Safety Award Scheme, recognising a greatly improved accident record and new safety initiatives across its sites in 2014.

Tim Thompson, operations director at Wienerberger, accepted the award on behalf of his operations team, who agreed to donate the award to support the HPBC initiative.

HPBC aims to improve the supply of affordable new homes, relying on donations and community involvement.

The homes are mostly built by volunteers, including future homeowners themselves who work to help build the properties – known as “sweat equity” – in return for a £10,000 discount on the cost of their new home.

HPBC’s strategy has been recognised by a number of awards, including Most Innovative/Specialist Solution at the National Housing Awards, Best Community-led Initiative at the 2014 UK Housing Awards and Best Housing Alliance at the First Time Buyer Readers’ Awards.

Wienerberger has supported the initiative since 2012, donating materials, capital and expertise to support the creation of 32 three-bedroom homes on Kingsley Road in the Granby-Toxteth area of Liverpool.

Liza Parry, chief executive at Housing People, Building Communities, said: "From the donation of building materials to the money raised by last year’s Manchester 10k and now the extremely generous donation to help us replace our stolen goods, the support we’ve received from Wienerberger over the last three years has been absolutely tremendous.

"The HPBC home partners, volunteers, trainees and board of trustees are so grateful for their generosity, without which, this community project would have undoubtedly struggled to be completed."

Annette Forster, director of marketing at Wienerberger, said: “I would like to applaud the Wienerberger operations team for their effort, knowing that this enabled Wienerberger to support Liza and her team in their time of need but more importantly, improve the lives of the people living in this community.”