If the sector wants trust, it must fix the social value delivery gap

Trust in development is fragile. Anyone working in the built environment knows this. Whether you’re consulting on a major regeneration scheme or sitting opposite a planning committee, the same questions keep surfacing: Who really benefits? Will the promised community investment ever materialise? And why does it take so long for the money to reach the people it was intended for?

It’s no surprise that the pressure on the sector to demonstrate real, visible social value has grown. From S106 and CIL to voluntary commitments and ESG reporting, we’ve built a system heavy on good intentions but light on delivery. Time and again, our members tell us the same thing: the process is too slow, too fragmented and too resource-heavy. Meanwhile, smaller community groups – the very organisations best placed to deliver local impact – struggle to access funding at all.

This is a challenge for the whole built environment, not just developers or local authorities. And it sits at the heart of something I’ve believed since the day we opened NLA: if we want people to have confidence in the future of their city, we need to be honest about the structures that shape it – and fix them when they don’t work. 

The social value gap we rarely talk about

For years, the built environment has improved the way it talks about social value. We’ve become more transparent, more sophisticated, more aligned with policy expectations. But the lived experience for communities doesn’t always match the documentation. Promises sit on websites; diagrams appear in committee papers; commitments are logged in spreadsheets. Yet the process of turning those commitments into on-the-ground change is too often opaque, lengthy, and inconsistent.

This isn’t about placing blame. It’s about recognising the reality that most teams – whether public or private – simply do not have the systems or capacity to design funds, distribute grants and evidence outcomes in a way that keeps pace with modern expectations.

We wouldn’t attempt to deliver complex engineering projects using software from 20 years ago; yet we ask overstretched organisations to handle community funding through manual processes, multiple spreadsheets and email chains. It’s no wonder bottlenecks appear.

Bringing the city’s ecosystem together

If my career has taught me anything, from model-making workshops in Kingston to large-scale public exhibitions, it’s that London works best when its different parts understand one another. When we created NLA, the idea was simple: bring the built environment together across disciplines, demystify the system for the public, and connect people who rarely have the opportunity to sit in the same room.

This ethos still underpins everything we do. And it’s why our new partnership with ActionFunder feels like a natural extension of that mission.

The sector needs practical tools that help close the gap between intention and impact – especially when public trust is at stake. ActionFunder provides a way for organisations to design funds quickly, distribute money to vetted grassroots groups, and demonstrate outcomes with transparency and pace. It’s a solution to a systemic challenge, not a new administrative burden.

Why this matters now

London is entering a period where delivery will matter more than rhetoric. The city needs homes, infrastructure, investment and regeneration – all happening in a climate where scrutiny is high and public confidence is unpredictable.

If we want communities to believe that development is something done with them rather than to them, then the benefits must be visible and verifiable. Not years after the fact, not buried in annual reports, not lost between project teams – but in real time, with real evidence, delivered through real partnerships.

Better systems won’t solve every challenge in the sector, but they can solve an underrated one: the credibility gap. When community funding is delivered quickly, transparently and with accountability, it changes the tone of local conversations. It strengthens relationships between boroughs and developers. It shows that commitments are not just contractual obligations but meaningful contributions to local life.

A shared responsibility

Those of us who shape London’s neighbourhoods every day have a responsibility to raise the bar. Not because regulators demand it, or because frameworks require it, but because it’s fundamental to the social contract that allows cities to grow.

Development is not just a technical exercise. It’s an act of stewardship. Whether you’re an architect, a planner, an engineer, an investor or a local authority officer, you’re part of a system that affects people’s lives. We owe it to those people to ensure the social value we talk about translates into outcomes they can actually see – parks refreshed, community centres repaired, youth programmes funded, local groups empowered.

Partnerships alone won’t solve this, but the right partnerships can shift what’s possible. Working with ActionFunder is one step in that direction: a practical tool supporting a larger ambition. That shared ambition will be explored at an upcoming event – How to GiveAF: Proving social value in the Built Environment Sector – featuring public and private sector leaders from across the sector, including Peter Freeman, the former chair of Homes England.  If the built environment sector is serious about rebuilding trust, then delivering community benefits quickly, transparently and consistently must become part of our core infrastructure.

London has always thrived when it gets the fundamentals right. Now is the moment to ensure social value isn’t an afterthought or an obligation – but a defining part of how we build a city worthy of the people who live in it.