As featured in the Financial Times: breaking the prison cycle
In September 2025, the Financial Times featured our prison rehabilitation programme — the moment our work building bamboo bikes inside prisons reached a national readership of business leaders, investors and policymakers.
The context
For the past several years we have run a bamboo-bike building programme inside HMP Lowdham Grange, a Category B men's prison in Nottinghamshire. The FT followed the story of how Makers there learn to build a complete bamboo bicycle frame by hand — and, through our Build to Bond strand, build balance bikes for their own children to hand over on a family visit.
What the FT covered
The feature, written by FT journalist Marion Willingham, described the programme as we run it: a dedicated 2,000 sq ft workshop inside the prison, a six-week course taught with hand tools, taking Makers from workshop safety and materials through to frame construction, mechanics and finishing. The piece set this against a simple piece of evidence — that people who keep an active relationship with their family while inside are far less likely to return to prison.
The UK Prisons Minister, Lord (James) Timpson, gave the programme a direct endorsement in the article:
"Innovative projects, such as Build to Bond, support rehabilitation and help people leave prison as better citizens, boosting the economy and keeping our streets safe."
Why it matters
National coverage like this does something a brochure cannot: it lets prison commissioners, funders and corporate partners see the work validated independently. The reason the FT could write the piece is the work itself — a programme at Lowdham that is now oversubscribed, with Makers asking to join before places open.
The wider picture is well established: research for the Lord Farmer Reviews found that people in prison who maintain family contact are around 39% less likely to reoffend. Build to Bond puts that relationship at the centre of what gets built. (This is national research, not a claim about our own outcomes.)
A member of the prison's own team, Sally Allsopp, Industries Manager at HMP Lowdham Grange, has described what the course adds beyond the technical skills:
"The bamboo bike course offers more than just technical training — it provides an avenue for creativity, teamwork, and self-expression. Watching the pride on a father's face when he presents a bike to his child is something special."
Read it
- The original Financial Times feature: ft.com
- More on the programme: Bamboo bike building — transforming lives at Lowdham Grange