Overview
Aviva is proud to take action with local partners to invest in housing and infrastructure, and help strengthen financial resilience, improve employment prospects, support climate adaptation and protect and restore nature across Norwich and Norfolk. We’re supporting young people to gain skills and experience while they are still at school, reengaging NEET young people with the world of work, and improving access to support for individuals facing hardship. We’re investing in local housing and infrastructure through the Anglia Square redevelopment project, and have spearheaded multiple projects to protect green spaces that benefit the local environment and drive positive change in communities.
Investing in housing and infrastructure
Anglia Square
The Anglia Square Investment Partnership is a £350 million collaboration between Aviva Capital Partners and Norwich City Council, supported by Homes England. The aim is to regenerate the derelict Anglia Square site into a vibrant urban hub with up to 1,100 new homes, retail, leisure and community spaces.
Aviva is proud to host a pop-up community space in container market St Saviours Yard while the Anglia Square site is regenerated. This is providing space for charities, social enterprises and community groups to connect with community members in a range of ways.
Strengthening financial resilience
Norfolk Citizens Advice and Future Projects
Aviva partners with Citizens Advice Norfolk to expand financial advice support across the county, by both training local organisations in financial aid advice giving and by enhancing the technology offer for self-help tools to enable early intervention.
Through an Aviva Foundation grant, Future Projects are delivering Money Matters – a programme using innovative approaches to help people in, or at risk of falling into a ‘negative budget’ – where essential expenditure exceeds income. The programme aims to support over 300 people, embed positive attitudes and habits and achieve sustainable financial resilience.
Improving employability prospects
IntoUniversity
Aviva is ensuring that schools in areas of multiple deprivation have access to business encounters with us and other employers, to improve their students’ employability prospects. These include assemblies, workshops, workplace visits and placements.
Aviva’s Norfolk partnership with IntoUniversity provides funding and volunteering to support young people aged 7-18 in areas of social inequality with a targeted, long-term programme of activities to increase their skills, confidence, aspirations and academic achievement.
YMCA Norfolk and Your Own Place
The Aviva Foundation has made contributions to two key Norwich based charities – YMCA Norfolk and Your Own Place, through the Future Chances Fund. This fund aims to improve the employability of young people facing barriers due to inequality and discrimination.
Norfolk & Suffolk Careers Hub
As a member of the Cornerstone employers group, Aviva are committed to supporting the Norfolk & Suffolk Careers Hub because we believe in helping young people in need find their best next step. We understand the importance of strong careers education, not only for the future success of individuals but also for the long-term growth of our local communities and economy.
Supporting climate adaptation
Riverscape East Anglia project
Between 2021 and 2024, Aviva and WWF worked together to restore UK landscapes and build healthier and more resilient communities. The Riverscape East Anglia project, delivered in partnership with Norfolk Rivers Trust, sought to restore the natural flow of selected rivers within a number of catchments, helping to reduce flooding whilst building physical and community resilience in this unique, largely agricultural landscape.
Protecting and restoring nature
Sweet Briar Marshes
In 2022, Aviva donated £300,000 in match funding to help Norfolk Wildlife Trust protect Sweet Briar Marshes in Norwich. The Trust’s vision is to protect and enhance the site for the city, its wildlife and local residents It is also Aviva’s ambition to ensure this now accessible space thrives as a hub for both the education and wellbeing of the wider community through appreciation of the natural world. In 2025 Aviva donated an additional £700,000 to support the creation of a new on-site base for staff and volunteers, as well as funding three community engagement and biodiversity roles. Since 2022, over 150 Aviva colleagues have volunteered at Sweet Briar Marshes working on scrub clearance, removing invasive species and habitat restoration.
Green Farm Norfolk
Working with our partner, the Woodland Trust, Aviva colleagues are volunteering to help create new woodland for wildlife and people to enjoy. The Woodland Trust has acquired Green Farm in Norfolk, a 119-hectare site to be transformed into a mosaic of broadleaved woodland, wood pasture, grassland and hedgerows in the heart of the county where Aviva began.
More sustainability in action
See how we’re helping to regenerate the places where we live and work.
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Bristol
We're helping to protect and restore nature, and improve employability prospects across Bristol and Gloucestershire.
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Eastleigh
We're helping to strengthen financial resilience, invest in housing and infrastructure, and improve employability prospects across Eastleigh and Southampton.
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Perth
We're helping to improve employability prospects across Perth and Tayside.
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Sheffield
We're helping to improve employment prospects, strengthen financial resilience, protect and restore nature, and invest in housing and infrastructure across Sheffield and South Yorkshire.
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York
We're helping to improve employment prospects, strengthen financial resilience, and protect and restore nature across York and North Yorkshire.
