Social value can change lives, but it must be truly built in

I’ve spent more than 30 years in the sector, much of it focused on improving homes and neighbourhoods. Earlier in my career, I helped to award many large contracts that promised community benefits alongside the works. But once delivery began, those commitments slipped away. The paperwork was filed, attention moved on and social value fell out of view.

These experiences led me to a conclusion. Social value works best when it is governed properly and held to account. Without clear structure, it can be easily sidelined.

Critics dismiss government social value requirements as a “pointless pantomime”, saying that it too often becomes a box-ticking exercise and adds bureaucracy. But this mistakes problems of implementation for a failure of principle.

Social value has often not met expectations because it has been treated as a goodwill gesture, not a priority. Patchy application and unclear ownership have created complexity without clarity and, at times, more burden than benefit.

When social value is embedded properly – through contractual obligations and effective governance – it delivers real results for communities. A repairs and maintenance programme already serves residents; its value increases when it also offers them additional opportunities.

At L&Q, our major works investment programme became a catalyst for rethinking how we approach this challenge. We’re investing £3bn over 15 years to improve the safety, comfort and environmental performance of residents’ homes. The scale and duration of the programme allowed us to take a longer-term view.

Social value is now one of six programme-level targets, which also include cost, quality and safety. From the outset, we looked for partners with the experience and intent to support the communities they work in and have stayed close to those commitments over time.

That shift also changed how we work. Community investment colleagues are now involved in key discussions with contractors, ensuring promises are carried through into practice.

Effective social value takes time. It requires curiosity, attention and an understanding that it cannot be designed from behind a desk. Through the L&Q Foundation, we focused on where need was greatest, drawing on data such as rent arrears, food and fuel insecurity, unemployment, and deprivation.

Alongside this analysis, we rely on the knowledge of our community development leads, whose close understanding of residents helps to surface priorities that numbers alone can miss.

“We’re exploring how our partners can work together to set up a shared skills academy, providing high-quality training and guaranteed employment on completion”

By being clear about what we want to achieve, and how we’ll measure it, we’ve been able to prove that we’re making a difference.

The results speak for themselves. Social value is the golden thread running through our community development activity and aligns directly with residents’ needs. So far, the programme has generated £100m of social value, with more investment planned over the remaining 12 years. We’re now applying this way of working across our entire procurement programme.

Headline numbers are important, but social value often reveals itself in seemingly ordinary moments. A care leaver securing their first interview after repeated setbacks. An older resident receiving warm, community-prepared meals during a long, cold winter. A scout group reopening the doors to a refurbished hut, and a new generation of young people finding a place to belong.

Our investment programme has also become a testbed for tackling some of the sector’s most pressing challenges. We are seeing significant skills shortages in key trades, including kitchen and bathroom fitters. In response, we’re exploring how our partners can work together to set up a shared skills academy, providing high-quality training and guaranteed employment on completion.

As landlords, the question we need to ask ourselves is what we want our legacy to be. We already invest significant sums in homes and neighbourhoods. The opportunity now is to ensure that this investment leaves communities stronger and better equipped for the future.

When social value is designed with discipline and delivered with intent, it can change the course of a life. I know this because it changed mine.

David Lewis, executive group director of property and investment, L&Q