‘’Bradford Metropolitan District Council’s Industrial Services Group are a credit to the people they serve and the staff they employ”

As a not for profit manufacturing arm of Bradford Council, they use commercial activities to generate opportunities for local, long-term unemployed people, but also those with disabilities, providing them with work-based skills to increase their employability, whereby in the open job market they may not have the opportunity.

Secured by Design (SBD) members since 2007, Industrial Services Group (ISG) have a range of SBD accredited windows and doorsets which have achieved the exacting Police Preferred Specification for their security. You can find out more about these products here.

ISG was established in its current guise in 1997, wholly owned by Bradford Metropolitan District Council but operating in the commercial sector manufacturing PVC-U windows, doors and Secured by Design Composite Fire doors, the organisation has one clear remit, to improve employment opportunities for disabled people through local recruitment.

The company’s roots however, stretch back much further, to the 1920s when the Bradford arm of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) established a service supporting incapacitated servicepeople returning from World War I, into employment. The precedent was set for continued work with unemployed disabled people in local communities, and ISG remains headquartered in the same premises commissioned by the RNIB all those years ago.

Since 1997 ISG have been surveying, manufacturing and installing PVC-U windows, composite doors and fire check doors for the social housing refurbishment and new build sector. ISG’s main customers include Housing Associations, Local Authorities, and construction companies across the North of England, with ISG consistently receiving widespread recognition over the past two decades for their manufacturing and installation.

SBD Technical Manager Alfie Hosker said: “ISG manufacture a range of Secured by Design Police Preferred Specification doors and windows into the housing market and our relationship with them is now entering its 16th year.

“ISG have a very different core purpose than most other businesses, operating as a specialist arm of the BMDC, and by achieving sustained paid work for local people, their trainees can quite literally transform their own lives – ISG are a credit to the people they serve and the staff they employ”.

Darren Shaw, General Manager said, “Built Environment’s Industrial Services Group is a subsidiary of  Bradford Council like no other, wholly funded by BMDC, we hope to grow our not for profit business along with the opportunities which we will be able to offer people within the local area. To do this, we need the support from other local bodies/local businesses who are willing to partner with us to achieve what we are striving to do for Bradford.

“If you are a housing association, new build company or a Council that would like to see what we are all about, please feel free to get in touch.  Come and visit our factory.  Even if you only require a quote for a one off/potential project, you are very welcome to visit and see our amazing business, products and people for yourself.

“Our products are a quality you rarely see, and we are justifiably proud of our SBD FD30S Winkhaus Fire frame doors!”

You can find out more about Industrial Services Group and their work via a series of short film clips, which can be viewed here.