Episode 193:

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I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we will be talking about how can architects bring Social Value to projects.Todays’ episode meets PC2 of the Part 3 Criteria.

Make sure to stay until the end for an example scenario.

What is Social Value in Architecture:

Architects increasingly encounter social value as more than a post-occupancy evaluation or add-on to Section 106, but as a central element in procurement and planning. Social value encompasses the holistic social, economic, and environmental benefits that architecture delivers to people and communities, from local job creation and wellbeing, to strengthened social connections and climate action. 

• Social value is best understood as the positive, non-financial impacts delivered by a project or organisation on individual wellbeing, community life, and the environment. 
• These impacts can range from safe, secure housing, improved health outcomes, opportunities for youth, employment creation, and stronger social capital. Fostering positive emotions through interventions, whether through connections with nature or offering opportunities for an active lifestyle, connecting people and the environment in appropriate ways and in providing freedom and flexibility to pursue different lifestyles. 
• The Social Value Act 2012 was a catalyst, bringing social value into procurement, contracts, and planning, but the focus is rapidly expanding from processes to long-term outcomes of design decisions.

RIBA and sector leaders are converging on a holistic definition that social value encompasses environmental, economic, and social factors. Known as the triple bottom line of sustainability. 

So Why Does Social Value Matter:

Apart from being mandated, central government, client bodies, and planning authorities are moving towards embedding social value in their frameworks for several reasons:

• Firstly, to quantifying impact. Social value is now considered a key element in bid scoring, pushing architects to prove their work's real-world benefit beyond statutory compliance or aesthetic quality.
• Secondly, due to procurement reform. Updates like the Procurement Act 2023 and policy statements published in 2025 clarify that social value must be built into design, construction, and community engagement from inception, not as an afterthought. The government emphasises the importance on the inclusions of a minimum 10% of the total score for social value in procurement. In local authority and social housing projects social value is regularly part of the procurement, using tools such as National Themes.
• And lastly, due to increasing requirements for community & wellbeing metrics supporting communities to help design and build their homes and neighbourhoods. Architects must show how their projects increase wellbeing, safety, engagement, and inclusion, with outcomes quantified using tools developed by HACT, UKGBC, RIBA, and client custom metrics. 

This shift towards having social value at the forefront of the design process, demands reflective practice and robust methods for assessment, challenging architects to get feedback, learn from users, and gather evidence that connects design to lived experience and shared prosperity.

How can Social Value be measured:

Three core routes are emerging for evaluating social value in architecture:

• The first one using Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment Methods: Consisting of structured post-occupancy questionnaires forming the backbone of the evaluation. These harness wellbeing research to ask residents about pride, safety, connection, freedom, and participation, comparing results before and after interventions and attributing outcomes specifically to design rather than broader social factors. 
• The second seeks to use monetisation and proxy tools: Financial proxies transform survey data and outcomes into cash values, using methodologies like Social Return on Investment (SROI), HACT's Social Value Bank and TOMs Framework. Examples include the willingness to pay for better mental health, safety, and social networks, making it easier for policy and clients to justify investment based on measurable benefit. 
• And the third uses narrative and participatory engagement. Guidances like the RIBA’s toolkit champions narrative, co-design, and participation as an essential counterweight to quantitative metrics ensuring the story of community voices and lived experience is part of the process.
• The BRE is also currently working on the development of a procurement tool that integrates multiple measures of value including social value as part of the Procuring for Value initiative by the Construction Industry Council. 

For architects, a key tool for them to utilise and embed into every design process is actively seeking community engagement. Utilising community engagement can be valued and supported through early procurement stages so that the measurement and valuation is carried through projects into operations and communities. Before embarking on any consultation it is also important to give consideration to ethics which can be done by giving participants adequate information on the project to understand what it entails, how the information will be used, and how their data will be protected and by obtaining proof of their informed consent. This usually takes the form of a project information sheet accompanied by a consent form. Ideally social value should be monitored before and after the design intervention so the extent of change can be ascertained. Social value requirements can be placed in contracts and become part of the performance management over the lifetime of that contract. Each requirement can be a golden thread of evaluation and monitoring as the project progresses. And in doing this, assurance becomes even more important, demonstrating that the social value that has been designed in, actually happens. It is clear that social value reporting will become as important as carbon and other ESG metrics.

The key takeaways for architects relating to incorporating social value into every project is first starting by:

• Looking at houses as more than buildings. Well-designed homes shape health, dignity, and opportunity.
• Then embedding social value into the design itself. From material choices to Plan of Work overlays, design decisions can support social value throughout.
• As mentioned, seeking deep community learning. Long-term, meaningful engagement gives residents agency and ensures solutions respond to real needs. 
• Advocating for better measurement. Current frameworks undervalue the qualitative, but architects can continue to strive for methodologies that focus on design.
• Break down silos by having open conversations, can align social value commitments and prevent duplicated effort.
• And lastly, supporting access to the profession. Work experience, mentoring, and inclusive recruitment diversify architecture and extend social value beyond projects for the next generation. 

Architects are still developing better methods and data sources for proving social value, particularly around long-term outcomes and intangible impacts. Embedding social value at the heart of design thinking, rather than relying on post-hoc metrics, remains a sector-wide challenge.

To conclude, social value is evolving, shaping everything from procurement frameworks to project management to long-term outcomes for UK communities. For architects, it is both an opportunity and a responsibility to evidence, measure, and deliver real improvement to people’s lives, the environment, and the economy. The RIBA’s Social Value toolkit provides guiding principles, processes, proxies, and strategies and should therefore become a key toolkit for all architects for each and every project. The greatest social value of architecture is not just what is designed, but what is actually delivered, which is safe, inclusive, empowering projects that build resilience, wellbeing, and real legacy for communities.

Before I move on to a real world example, let’s sum up what I discussed today:

• Social value in architecture is about the positive, non-financial impact of design on people, communities, and the environment. It’s not just a planning obligation or post-occupancy extra, but should form part of the core brief and procurement.
• Policy and procurement are now aiming at incorporating social value into projects through the Social Value Act 2012, Procurement Act 2023, minimum 10% scoring, local authority frameworks and so on.
• Measuring social value is evolving through a number of routes, three of the key ones include: mixed-method POE and surveys, monetised proxies like SROI/HACT/TOMs, and narrative/participatory approaches that foreground community voices and lived experience.
• Embedding social value requires early, ethical, and ongoing community engagement, carrying commitments through contracts, performance management, and post-occupancy monitoring.
• For practice, this means reframing homes as enablers of health and dignity, integrating social value into design decisions and the Plan of Work, breaking down silos with collaborators, improving measurement, and extending social value through access to the profession itself.