Building local capacity and networks
A growing number of London boroughs are developing partnerships, networks and resources within an area to support new models of business formation, as well as encouraging standards and ‘give back’ models as part of their economic activities.
Hackney Council is a stakeholder member of the Hackney Social Enterprise Partnership which is led by social enterprises in the borough. The Partnership has championed and supported over 300 emerging social enterprises within its borders, with a common goal of creating an environment where they can thrive and grow. The Council contributes to the partnership through the delivery of a number of manifesto commitments which include hosting an annual conference for the sector to share knowledge and ideas, engaging with social enterprises to support them in selling to the Council and collaborating with the sector to help shape future procurement policy.
To encourage the adoption of social values by all businesses in Hackney the Council has developed a business toolkit which sets out their support offer to businesses and establishes their expectations on how businesses should work with the Council to make Hackney a fairer place for all.
Hackney is one of four London Boroughs recognised as a Social Enterprise Place. This recognition can help to secure investment and support to grow the sector locally.
The Social Value Portal is another useful tool to help organisations measure, manage and report their social impact.
Leveraging procurement and purchasing power
London’s local authorities and the Mayor of London spent more than £26 billion delivering public services in 2018/19. This represents a substantial purchasing power which can be used to generate social value beyond the delivery of individual services. This could include requiring suppliers to be London Living Wage accredited, commitments to using local supply chains or delivering local jobs and targeted apprenticeships.
In addition to becoming a London Living Wage employer itself, Newham Council has developed a Community Wealth Building Strategy which has pledged to increase on the 28% of its annual spend made locally. They are proactively engaging with local anchor institutions to do the same, as well as providing support to local businesses so they can more easily bid for procurement tenders.
Common Wealth have pulled together a vision of Community Wealth Building post COVID-19. This sets out core principles, signposts key research and best practice from across the UK.
Using public property to secure social value
Access to affordable space remains a key challenge for growing the rich mix of social and community orientated enterprises that underpin a social economy. New approaches to property management – either at a portfolio or individual building scale - can incentivise the formation of more social and community businesses, either through targeted incubator programmes or by enabling rental levels to reflect the social value and local impact generated by tenants. Social value leases can also help incentive commercial activity to ‘give back’ when gaining favourable access to public resources.
Waltham Forest and Islington are pioneering value-driven approaches to their property portfolios, using mechanisms such as the Community Benefit Assessment Tool to quantify social value and set clear parameters for granting access to affordable space.
Haringey Council is testing a Community Wealth Building Lease that quantifies the social value delivered by a tenant, and discounts this against an agreed market rate rent. The discount is only awarded upon proof of delivery which ensures that social value is monitored and appropriately rewarded over the life of the tenancy.
Further afield, Liverpool CA have launched England's first Land Commission focused on community wealth building, to review how public land and assets can better deliver local social value.