Social value can’t just be reduced to a financial equation

We live in a world where everyone is trying to put a figure on Social Value and demonstrate their contribution to a society. The property industry can produce impressive sounding metrics, but let’s hope that we are not blinding ourselves, and everyone else, with figures.

Understanding the human impact of development activity requires time and effort. Even when you grasp it, the figures can do little justice to the actual value accruing in the community. I am mindful of what Sarah Forster, CEO of The Good Economy, describes as a “disconnect between property and social value creation” where everything is viewed purely in terms of improving profit or contributing to an uplift in values.

We’ve been working in the London Borough of Newham for the last decade and we’re currently on site delivering over 800 homes at the Manor Road Quarter in Canning Town.

At our previous regeneration project, across the road at Rathbone Market, we put a library and neighbourhood community centre alongside new homes. I’ve been to the community centre to visit an after school club and you can see school children doing their homework online. Clearly, we live in a digital world now, even in education, and this facility might provide the best, or only, opportunity some kids get to study online and not be digitally excluded. This building is making a valuable contribution to the community and its impact will resonate for many years to come.

Newham is an exciting place to work, increasingly regarded as the epicentre of the next wave of regeneration in East London. The Greater London Authority has underlined the point by moving there, to Royal Docks, and area is experiencing rapid investment and change, driven by new infrastructure such as the Elizabeth Line and the availability of brownfield land. But there are social challenges aplenty, including an acute shortage of affordable homes.

In Newham Council’s own estimation, place-led regeneration has a huge role to play addressing complex challenges that exist in Canning Town and across a borough which features some of the UK’s most deprived neighbourhoods. New homes are required to help overcome current challenges, which include a high rate of population churn and net out migration. Newham has some of the highest numbers of households in temporary accommodation and the second highest council housing waiting list. As many as 52% of children in the area live in poverty, much higher than the London average.

We’re creating over 400 affordable homes at Manor Road Quarter, which equates to 50% of the total number of homes being delivered, while driving social value in terms of jobs, apprenticeships and training. There’s significant spend in the local supply chain too, whether that be through labour or materials contracts. Relationships have already been formed with organisations such as Newham Works, an employment brokerage for local labour and local colleges.

To date and through our main contractor, Morgan Sindall Construction, seven previously unemployed people have been given jobs and six apprenticeships awarded. Other engagements have included taking part in careers and apprenticeship fairs, talks to Year 9 students, as well as being a key member of the ‘Moving on Up’ campaign that supports young black men in Newham. There’s also practical advice sessions with students to help prepare for them for the world of work or education.

Within The English Cities Fund, there’s certainly a belief in something deeper than a purely monetary estimation of social value. Evaluation must be people-centred, with a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches, and not just reduced to a financial sum to be reported in annual sets of results or trading updates.

It’s about having the resource to work with local communities and taking the time to identify the need for investment and measuring that impact, ultimately making sure we’re achieving what we set out to achieve. That’s a challenge we set ourselves and one we’ll continue to embrace, wherever we’re working in the country.