How real estate can use social value to connect with communities

COMMENT: Before ESG made it mainstream, corporate social responsibility was an almost ubiquitous part of any progressive business plan. With the advantage of a few years, you might be led to believe that the ‘S’ of ‘social’ would be the most well-defined corner of the trinity – but until recently, the focus has remained firmly on the ‘E’. For real estate developers and investors, the ‘S’ demands just as much attention. It also needs to stand for sustainably delivering social value for all the communities within our ecosystem. The built environment is unique. This gives the real estate industry the opportunity to be influential in delivering social value through development and beyond, at different stages of life. Connect with communities As a sector, we need to look at this from more than a monetary perspective. It’s tempting to think that the section 106 agreement and a community infrastructure levy embody our obligations. But a retail offering at the ground floor, or a few new additions to the street scene, are secondary to the importance of engaging with community needs to generate long-term social outcomes. Creating meaningful places that preserve and enhance community spirit must flow from the earliest stages of acquisition to operational use. The underlying principle of social value has to be about involving stakeholders through connecting with the local community. This enables direct engagement with, and better understanding of, the needs and wants of residents. Too often, a top-down approach reinforces the status quo, leading to suboptimal uses and underutilised spaces. At the same time, engaging and collaborating with communities can lead to increased support for schemes at planning committees, and build genuine trust. At Dominvs, we believe that to truly deliver social value, it needs to be embedded from the start of the decision-making process and considered beyond just the design of the scheme. Our in-house social value unit works in tandem with our development managers and our board. We want to be able to return to our developments over the next five to 30 years, and see that our schemes have delivered tangible social impact. At our scheme in Stratford, we’ll provide a non-profit community pub to be run by the Made Up Collective and affordable workspace targeted at creatives. At Holborn we’ll provide a public roof terrace and cultural amenity space. At Crutched Friars we are discussing with the Migration Museum how we can provide three floors that will reflect the key role migration has played in the shaping of modern Britain. But while plans embedded with schemes can deliver for the long-term, complex planning applications may wait more than 47 weeks at appeal stage until a decision is made. This offers the opportunity to be creative and incorporate meanwhile uses at a site that is currently sitting vacant or unused. Our meanwhile use scheme, Gaia’s Garden, attracted more than 1,300 young people from under-represented backgrounds into the City of London to learn about sustainability and wellbeing through workshops and events. Creating opportunities Social value for the real estate industry has to be about more than just what we can do at the sites we own, too. It’s about a widening of opportunities, encouraging a diverse workforce within the sector and inspiring the next generation of changemakers – by creating new opportunities, but also through collaboration with charities, local organisations, schools, businesses and local authorities to start bridging inequalities across our communities. There are currently 45,000 vacancies in construction and 16,000 in real estate activity. For those like us in hotel development, there are 158,000 shortages in accommodation and food services, according to the ONS. It is within our industry’s own interest to widen participation and attract the next generation of talent. Too often communities, especially in London, are dealing with developers and architects that don’t reflect the make-up of where they hope to build. The industry is getting better at opening pathways to those from diverse backgrounds, but there is still work to be done. So a decade on from the introduction of the Public Services (Social Value) Act, we have learnt on our journey that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to social value. To truly deliver change, it will require the actions of the industry to come together, work in partnership, share best practices and deliver long lasting, sustainable social value at the development level and beyond. Jay Ahluwalia is principal at Dominvs Group