Britain’s wildest new housing development

Outward Bound has just added 500 “rooms” to Britain’s wildest school, without laying a single brick.

Thanks to an £85,000 donation from Barratt Redrow PLC, and a partnership with British tent makers Vango, young people across the UK will now have a more comfortable and robust place to call home on their Outward Bound expeditions.

These 500 new tents will be used across all our centres, enabling thousands of nights under canvas every year. For many, it will be their first time camping. Their first night away from home. Their first real taste of responsibility.

From bricks and mortar to canvas and confidence

By day, Barratt Redrow PLC builds places for people to live. Through the Barratt Redrow Foundation, it’s now helping us to build something just as important: spaces where young people can grow.

This generous donation – in response to a specific appeal for new tents – comes on top of a three–year partnership extension with the Barratt Redrow Foundation, worth £1 million.

It’s a deliberate investment in something small but powerful. A tent may look like simple kit, but in human terms it’s a nudge:

• away from comfort and towards challenge
• away from dependence and towards independence
• away from “I can’t” and towards “I just did”

Built by Vango. Built for a hard life.

An Outward Bound tent doesn’t get an easy ride. It’s out on expedition for up to 50 weeks a year. It’s pitched on rough ground, in all weathers, by young people who are still learning the ropes.

So we’ve worked with Vango to create a specially modified tent for Outward Bound, with:

• Larger diameter poles to stand up to high winds
• Heavier ground sheets for rocky, uneven terrain
• Simpler guy lines for tired hands at the end of a long day
• Heavy-duty zips that can cope with constant use

Because Vango is a British supplier, repairs can be carried out at their factory and spare parts sourced quickly. We expect the life of each tent to double, keeping young people warm, safe and dry for years to come – and giving better value for every pound donated.

Why tents matter

Ask a young person what they remember from their Outward Bound course, and the tent often comes up.

It’s where the late–night conversations happen, where they plan the next day’s route, and where they discover they can cope with the dark, the noise, the rain, and still laugh about it in the morning.

It’s not a classroom, but they are learning. It’s not home, but it’s often the first place they really feel on their own two feet.

That’s the real story behind this “housing development”.

Together, the Barratt Redrow Foundation and Outward Bound are backing a simple idea: that anything is possible when you empower young people with real responsibility in real environments.