Congratulations for raising the profile of social value in the industry and putting on such a well-attended event earlier this month – and effective chairing of a lively discussion (Property Week and LGIM’s Social Impact Spotlight panel debate).

However, I was curious to observe that at least two of the panellists seemed to think having standardised values was the best way forward, with one saying: “Let’s all agree on the value of an apprenticeship.”

This is problematic. The panellist organisations invest significantly in apprenticeships that offer excellent career progression. Are they saying lesser apprenticeships from competitors offering little opportunity of career progression should be given the same social value as their own?

‘Best-in-class’ organisations with stronger social value approaches would end up with the same social value result as those that are just ticking boxes.

Investors should be deeply concerned by the giving away of competitive value so easily and readily, in the pursuit of making monitoring ‘easier’. Surely they should be evidencing higher social value per apprentice or career pathway than some ‘industry-standard value’?

Organisations such as the UK Green Building Council and Social Value UK advocate a range of approaches to help achieve this.

In the meantime, keep up the great work on this. I hope your efforts will help design, monitoring and performance practices to improve.

Andy Gawin Warby, partner, Envoy Partnership

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