Driving social value across social housing

• 8th February 2021

Corporate news

whg has joined Peabody and Leeds and Yorkshire Housing Association as the latest social housing organisations to sign up to support the development of HACT’s social value roadmap.

“This month we start work on expanding and enhancing the UK Social Value Bank as we begin the first stage of the social value roadmap,” said Andrew van Doorn, Chief Executive, HACT. “We’re delighted that Peabody, whg and Leeds and Yorkshire Housing Association are joining us. Their involvement will ensure the values, tools and use cases are applicable and accessible across the sector, regardless of organisational size.

The social value roadmap was launched in September 2020. It was developed by the UK Social Value in Housing Taskforce, comprising 17 organisations including leading social housing organisations, the Regulator for Social Housing and experts in social value.

Julie Haywood, Director of Community Investment at whg, said: “Community investment is an important part of our work to support customers to live happy and fulfilled lives.

“Often the challenge is how we measure the impact of this work to capture the wider values from wellbeing, economic and environmental areas and target more resources. HACT has been a key in helping the housing sector navigate through this with the UK Social Value Bank.

“We are really pleased to be working in partnership with HACT on the exciting development of the social value roadmap to help shape and create the next iteration of the UK Social Value Bank.”

Bob Heapy, Executive Team member & Peabody Social Value Champion said: “We are excited to be working with HACT and colleagues across the sector on this important project. The Social Value Roadmap will help us take the next steps on our journey as we seek to scale up our impact and drive additional social value for the benefit of people living in our communities. The expertise and resources on offer can help the sector create extra value for residents through procurement, partnerships, and everyday business activities.”

Mark Pearson, Chief Executive, Leeds and Yorkshire Housing Association, said: “It’s great to be involved in the innovative work that HACT is doing to help develop a cohesive approach to measuring social value across the housing sector. Delivering social value cuts across every area of what we do as an organisation: it helps us to influence our partnerships, improve decision-making and achieve better outcomes, as well as helping us deliver on regulatory and legal requirements. We look forward to working with other partners to embed this throughout the sector.”

Andrew van Doorn, Chief Executive, HACT, added: “The roadmap will enable social housing organisations to evidence to financial investors that they are serious about the importance of ESG reporting, and to leverage social value into their development programmes, driving value for residents and communities. It will create the tools the sector needs to drive social value through joint ventures, through, for example, incorporating social value into S106 requirements.”

The roadmap will enable the social housing sector to use social value information to improve services, enhance decision-making and increase the impact we make. The first meeting of the social value roadmap group is scheduled to take place in January 2021.

HACT is in discussions with over 20 more organisations from inside and outside the social housing sector about their involvement in the social value roadmap.

Organisations taking part in the roadmap include:

• Breyer Group
• Charis
• Clarion
• CHP
• Clarion
• Federated Hermes
• Fusion21
• Gentoo
• Leeds and Yorkshire HA
• Link
• Longhurst
• MTVH
• Optivo
• Orbit
• Peabody
• PlaceShapers
• Poplar HARCA
• Raven
• Regenda
• Social Value UK
• South East Consortium
• Sovereign
• VIVID
• whg
• Wythenshawe Community Housing Group
• Your Housing Group