Social Value

Social Value in planning can be defined as: ‘ The quantification of the importance that people place on the social and environmental changes they experience through development and spatial planning on their lives’ (Real Worth).

We propose the following draft objective for the Spatial Development Strategy to achieve and deliver.

Strategic Objective 5: Maximising Social Value from all aspects of development

This will be achieved by:

The social dimension of sustainable development is a wide-reaching objective, and the majority of relevant feedback to our previous engagement included a number of ‘tags’ related to health, wellbeing, community, education, employment, crime, and natural space.

However, some comments specific to social value were made and suggested that:

The Metro Mayor and Combined Authority place a strong emphasis on achieving social value, with a focus on equality social justice, inclusiveness, fairness, rewarding and promoting fair and ethical business, and the use of procurement to promote social value.

LCRCA will be the first in the country to incorporate an evaluation of social value in its SDS with the Metro Mayor and Combined Authority keen to ensure that economic growth benefits everyone and that the social and environmental impact of any future development is considered alongside the more traditional economic measures.

The Metro Mayor and Combined Authority have launched England’s first land commission focused on Community Wealth Building, tasked to make radical recommendations on the best use of publicly owned land to make the fairest and most socially inclusive City Region in the country.

LCRCA has joined calls for a Community Wealth Fund which would support communities at a neighbourhood level to take spending decisions.

Social value underpins the LCRCA’s approach with the Fairness and Social Justice Advisory Board (FASJAB) providing an independent sounding board, ensuring that issues of fairness and social justice are considered in every strategy developed.

LCRCA’s draft Local Industrial Strategy (LIS) sets a Grand Challenge for the City Region to be the most inclusive economy in the UK, with inclusivity identified as a key driver for policy making, investments and commissioning. The LIS notes the City Region has a thriving and effective social economy which is a key asset and the use of Community Wealth Buildings principles to support the shift to an inclusive system.

Social value is one of six principles in LCRCA’s Economic Recovery Plan . The recovery plan also sets out our aim to push forward wider objectives relating to community wealth building, social value and the creation of a more diverse and ethically responsible business base.

National planning policy’s definition of sustainable development involves a social objective, which includes supporting strong, vibrant and healthy communities by a range of means. National policy also sets out that planning policies should, amongst other things, take into account and support delivery of local strategies to improve health, social and cultural well-being.

The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires public authorities to have regard to economic, social and environmental well-being in connection with public contracts and for connected purposes. The Government Civil Society Strategy sets out that the Government will explore the suggestion that this Act should be applied to public decision making such as planning.

The Social Value Portal have set out the benefit of using the Social Value Act in the planning process, and make a number of recommendations for how to integrate social value into planning.

The Government’s 2019 English Indices of Deprivation show that almost a third of the City Region’s neighbourhoods are within the top 10% most deprived in England.

This objective will serve as a guiding principle to shape the SDS as it is developed. A number of suggested policy approaches have also been put forward as part of this engagement that would directly or indirectly help us achieve this objective.

Please provide your views on this draft objective by answering the questions below.