Itchy feet

John Montague has disappeared a few times in his career. In 1986, after working as an agent on a £3m hotel in Chester, he came into a bit of money. Instead of doing the sensible thing and buying a house, he travelled around the world and, in a personal sense, came out of his shell.

In 1994, an ended relationship in the rearview mirror, he absconded to Paris for six months to kickstart another (they're married now). There he discovered that he disliked not being the breadwinner.

In 1999 he gave up the post of construction manager, running the £27m turnover Wolverhampton office of John Mowlem. He didn't tell colleagues precisely where he was going. Something about housing associations. In fact, he was off to start up a rival construction firm with a difference.

The idea of Newlife Regeneration Construction was a gauntlet flung at his feet by the late Kay Burkhill MBE, a long-time social housing campaigner in Leicester. The idea was to create a construction company with a conscience, where urban regeneration and helping young people get a life were just as important as profit.

The challenge came at good time in Montague's life. He was doing okay in Wolverhampton but his superior seemed set for the long haul and Montague's feet have always been itchy.

He was headhunted to found Newlife, using a half-a-million-pound loan from TREES, a social regeneration agency funded by derivative commercial enterprises. Currently, there is a gas services company and a conference and events company.

On the social side, Newlife builds homes for disadvantaged people, helps regenerate run-down areas, trains marginalised 18 to 24-year-olds and provides jobs. It also makes a profit now, three years into its life, and contributed £29,000 to TREES this year. That's a little over 20% of the agency's pretax profits.

In some ways he was a bit green for the role of managing director. He rode a pretty steep learning curve on matters of tax. He kept wanting to call a finance department that wasn't there.

i’m no woolly jumper type but i get a kick from it

John Montague

But he pinched personnel from other contractors in the region, offering competitive pay and infecting them with his faith and excitement for the project.

Newlife's main client is Leicester Housing Association but he wants to branch out and sees Newlife as a direct competitor to other main contractors.

It seems like a good career move for Montague. His enthusiasm for the job is palpable on the phone, and he's just been named Social Entrepreneur of the Year for England's central region in Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year awards. He proceeds to the national finals in October.

Don't mistake Montague for a do-gooder, though. He's well paid, and he has to be as tough and shrewd as any other construction boss because the company has to turn in a profit. But he finds the social side a pleasant dimension.

In one recent project, Newlife built flats for young people with persistent problems, including heroin addiction. The young people helped design and build the flats in return for free furnishings and the reserved space. A Newlife site agent had to manage them. Newlife also provided a social worker to help them with basic life skills, like getting out of bed.

About half of them finished the 18-month programme and some of them got jobs.

Newlife made a profit on the building it delivered for the LHA.