‘Wild west’ social value must improve to deliver change, think tank warns

Leading think-tank Demos said, done correctly, a robust social value industry could speed up net zero and turbo-charge inclusive growth and innovation.

However, they also warned that social value, suppliers and public sector authorities could all suffer reputational damage if they fall into the trap of "greenwashing".

Senior figures from the think tank appeared on Let’s Talk Social Value, a podcast hosted by social value agency Samtaler, to speak about their recent report, produced in partnership with GS1 UK

Social value, sometimes described as community benefits, is a concept increasing in popularity, and involves businesses giving something back to the communities they work in.

National and local government are increasingly using it as part of their bidding and procurement processes.

Hana Kapetanovic, Lead Researcher with Demos, said: “There’s definitely a sense of a wild west out there when it comes to social value.

“That’s from the perspective of procurers, who feel like they don’t understand if bidders have delivered the social value promised.

“And from the business perspective, it’s a wild west in terms of the different contracts and frameworks, and that places a huge administrative burden.

“The social value sector itself is a wild west, and if people don’t know what’s going on they pick up on that, taxpayers pick up on that and investors pick up on that.

“There’s then a risk of a loss of trust in the agenda.

“We’ve seen this sort of thing in the US, with increases in greenwashing allegations, investors have decreased their investments in funds – it’s having a real impact, and it worries me that we might see a similar thing here.

“If people lose trust, it just means the social value agenda loses weight, no-one believes in it any more, no-one invests and we’ve even seen something similar in loss of trust in public procurement through the scandals.

“There’s a big worry that all of that would mean people wouldn’t believe in it anymore.”

Andrew O’Brien, Director of Policy and Impact for Demos, said: “People’s expectations of what social value can be and should be have risen in the last few years.

“Because it has been around for more than a decade as a concept, people aren’t going to give it a free pass.

“People want to know that the way we’re doing social value is robust and grounded in evidence.

“They are expecting to see the benefits realised much quicker.

“The prize is still enormous, and I think if you embed social value into every private business and every public sector body – all doing it efficiently and effectively – the level of impact you could create is enormous.

“You could get to net zero years quicker, tackle issues of social mobility far faster, you could generate faster growth and better levels of innovation.

“There aren’t many policy areas like that, that could make the country feel different in five-to-10 years’ time.”

Sarah Stone, director of Samtaler, said: “Social value, when it’s done right, is absolutely magic.

“It is truly transformational, shifts the needle and changes the way companies operate – once they do it they never go back.

“They see the commercial benefits.

“But done badly, all it does is increase costs. You don't get any of the positive social impact and so don't see any of the commercial benefits.”