Lord Sugar appeals to Essex community to support new Jewish Care campus

Lord Alan Sugar is calling on the Essex community to support the completion of a multi-million-pound care and community campus in Redbridge.

The businessman and philanthropist, who has become a household name since he began hosting reality TV show The Apprentice, is a major donor of the development, which is due to open in the summer of 2026. Its residential wing will be known as the Sugar Family Care Home.

The life peer, who grew up in Hackney, East London is appealing to local Jewish residents to collectively bring in £1 million in Jewish Care’s first ever community fundraising campaign, titled Always Essex.

He said: “Please contribute to this magnificent project because it’s your parents or grandparents, and maybe even you one day, who are going to need this wonderful facility.”

As well as the 66-bed Sugar Family Care Home, which will replace Jewish Care’s Vi and John Rubens House care home in Gants Hill, the campus will also include the Ronson Community Centre, named after other keystone donors Gerald Ronson CBE and Dame Gail Ronson DBE, and their family. The community centre will replace Redbridge Jewish Community Centre, formerly known as Sinclair House, which was built in 1969.

Progress is being made on the new Jewish Care campus in Redbridge. Lord Alan Sugar is calling on the local community to support the building project (Photo: Jewish Care)[Missing Credit]

Jewish Care’s outreach services – meals on wheels, social work and community support, Jami ‘s Redbridge community hub and the MIKE youth leadership programme – will also be based on the new site.

Jewish Care CEO Daniel Carmel-Brown, who grew up attending the youth club at Sinclair House, said: “I want to say an incredible thank you for the extraordinary generosity shown by our cornerstone donors and to so many others who have supported us so far to make this dream a reality.

“But we need your help to finish it, and we are…asking for support from anyone who has a place in their heart for the Essex community, whether they live in the area today, have done in the past and/or are keen to support the new site, to be part of building the future of Jewish Care in Redbridge.”

He said that the charity would be inviting the local community on hard hat tours in the coming weeks to see the development first hand.

According to project leaders, sustainability has been at the forefront of the planning, with key features including solar panelling and a green roof with vegetation, such as grass, moss and wildflowers.

(L to R) Jewish Care Trustee Jonathan Rose, John Burns, Hayley Ronson and Sir Gerald Ronson on a site tour of Jewish Care's new care home & campus (Photo: Jewish Care)[Missing Credit]

A contrasting colour scheme between furniture, flooring and walls has been used to accommodate visual impairments common in dementia and conditions such as macular degeneration.

There is also level flooring throughout to ensure easy movement around the site, particularly for those with mobility challenges.

Jonathan West, Jewish Care’s director of legal affairs, property and procurement, said he expected the building to achieve an “excellent “BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) rating, reflecting its high level of sustainability and placing it among the top 10 per cent of environmentally responsible buildings”. 

A CGI-generated image of Jewish Care's new Redbridge care and community campus[Missing Credit]

He said the campus would include displays of traditional Jewish objects and memorabilia from Sinclair House, “so that the community feels at home in the space with familiar items around them that celebrate being part of one big Jewish Essex and north-east London family”.

The Always Essex community fundraising campaign is on May 18-19. To donate, click here or go to: https://www.fundnation.org/jewishcare