The confetti has settled, the tables at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre have been cleared away, and trophies have found their places on shelves across the county. For us, though, the Buckinghamshire Business Awards are always a night that stays with us a little longer.
As sponsors of the Community Champions award, our job on the night is simple. We sit back, listen to the finalists’ stories and try not to look too nervous when the envelope comes out. It’s one of our favourite parts of the year. Most of what we do involves leases, rents and valuations, so it’s a welcome change to spend an evening hearing about businesses giving their time, space and skills to the people around them.
So congratulations to Horwood House Hotel, this year’s Community Champions, and to Radley Aylesbury and Seymour Taylor, who more than earned their places on the shortlist.
More than a name on a trophy
This award recognises businesses that give back where there’s no direct financial return. It can’t be won with a single donation or a well-timed campaign. What the judges look for is a track record, and each of this year’s finalists has one. Here’s a closer look at what each of them has been up to.
Horwood House Hotel (winner)
Horwood House is a country house hotel and conference venue set in a 38-acre estate in Little Horwood, near Milton Keynes. Owner Karim Kassam sees the hotel as a community hub, and that idea runs through the whole business. The hotel supports causes in three ways: giving money, volunteering, and sharing its skills. Every permanent member of staff gets two paid charity days a year.
Much of the hotel’s giving is built into everyday trading. Its Crisis Coffee Lounge donates 15% of every coffee sale to Crisis UK and has raised more than £27,500 so far. When a guest opts out of room servicing, the hotel donates the cost of a hot meal. Its Party with Purpose corporate package passes 5% of revenue to its charity partners. The hotel is a Corporate Platinum Partner of Willen Hospice, and its chefs have supported the hospice’s fundraisers. It also gives ongoing support to Medical Detection Dogs.
The estate plays its part too. Horwood House has committed £7,500 over three years to Urban Bee-lievers, a charity that teaches young people through beekeeping. The charity’s hives are on the estate, and honey from them has been on sale since World Bee Day 2026, with proceeds going to the charity’s education programmes. Students have built wildlife teepees in the grounds with help from hotel staff. The hotel’s Butterfly Resort now includes a butterfly trail, and in February it became an Investor in Wildlife with the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust. The senior team also visits schools and universities to promote careers in hospitality and offer work experience. Last Christmas, the hotel ran a competition to recognise unsung community champions across Milton Keynes.
Radley Aylesbury
Radley has supplied and installed windows, doors and conservatories for homeowners in Aylesbury for more than 25 years, from its showroom on Rabans Lane. Most of its work comes from customers recommending the firm to friends and family, and this is its second year running on the Community Champions shortlist.
Five years ago, Radley bought a stage trailer and set up the Radley Events Team. The team takes the stage, along with live music and a compère, to local schools and community events free of charge. Demand has grown to the point where the firm now runs two stages and books around 45 events a year, yet still has to turn some requests away. The events have helped raise thousands of pounds for schools in Aylesbury, Haddenham and Tring and for charities including Thomley, Florence Nightingale Hospice and the Bucks Radio Christmas toy appeal. Because organisers don’t have to pay for staging, sound or a DJ, they save money that would otherwise come out of what they raise.
Radley’s Halloween event opens the showroom for children to trick or treat in safety, free of charge, and raises money for Florence Nightingale Hospice. Radley supports the hospice all year, at five or six of its events. The Halloween event has grown from 100 children to more than 800, and now includes a dedicated session for children with SEND. Every member of staff helps out. The team spends two days setting up the showroom and has camped on site overnight at events such as Thomley’s two-day festival, sometimes working from 6am to midnight.
Seymour Taylor
Seymour Taylor is an independent firm of accountants and tax advisers that has been in High Wycombe since 1917. It works with businesses and private individuals across audit, accountancy and tax, and also provides payroll, digital accounting and outsourced finance services. Supporting local causes has long been part of the firm, which was a founding member of the CSRA accreditation programme and recently achieved Gold status.
Its 2025 Charity of the Year was the Young Futures Fund, part of Heart of Bucks, which supports projects helping young people, particularly those who are vulnerable, with their wellbeing, skills and future opportunities. The team set a target of £10,000 and met it through a bingo night run with a local law firm, a bikeathon, raffles and the Marlow Santa Fun Run, with the firm match-funding staff fundraising along the way. That work continues with Heart of Bucks through 2026 and 2027.
Alongside that, the firm supports schools with careers fairs and talks on apprenticeships, exhibits at the Bucks Skills Show, supports the Bucks Radio Christmas toy appeal and is a main sponsor of SportsAid. This year its team gave up a Saturday to play in the Wycombe Wanderers Foundation Community Cup, and won it. Staff from the Managing Directors to the apprentices give their own time to support this work.
What they have in common
These three businesses are very different: a country house hotel, a window and door installer, and an accountancy firm. What links them is that each has looked at what it already has and asked who else could benefit from it. Horwood House opens up its estate. Radley puts its showroom and stage trailers to use. Seymour Taylor brings its people and their skills.
Two of those three examples are, at heart, about property. Most of our work involves helping clients get the best from a building in financial terms. It’s a useful reminder that a building can also bring people together and serve the wider community.
None of this comes at the expense of running a good business. Community work brings teams together, builds local relationships and earns loyalty that’s hard to win any other way. Many of the finalists would say it has made them a stronger business, not a weaker one.
Why it matters to us
Having worked across Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Berkshire since 1979, we know these towns, business parks and the people in them. We see the difference businesses like these make, not just on awards night but on an ordinary weekday, at a school fête, a hospice fundraiser or a charity walk. Much of it goes unnoticed outside the communities it serves, which is exactly why we’re glad to put a spotlight on it.
Congratulations again to Horwood House, Radley and Seymour Taylor, and thank you to Buckinghamshire Business First for another well-run awards. If your business is involved in community work of its own, we’d encourage you to enter next year.
