Our Head of Social Value, Sian Rebourg gives insight into how we plan, refine and deliver our social value commitments.

At Hill, we have always aimed to be leaders and innovators in our sector, and this includes environmental and social issues. We have delivered some of the most sustainable schemes in the UK such as the Housing Design Award winning Knights Park and, as regeneration specialists, a community focus is at the heart of what we do. One of our driving forces at Hill is creating real, tangible social value that leaves a positive, lasting impact on communities now and in the future.

Our work spans private residential projects to residential land development and special projects, through partnerships with housing associations and councils. Since the business covers such a wide spectrum it can involve anything from section 106 commitments through to comprehensive social value programmes and my role as Head of Social Value entails optimising the group’s approach to and delivery of social value.

Measuring our Social Value impact

We believe that it’s vital to understand the communities that we are working in to maximise our impact and tailor our social value offering. We use HACT’s Community Insight tool, which allows us to achieve optimal social value.

There are many commonalities to focus on right now, especially in relation to rising costs of living and inflation. We research the socioeconomic profile of an area to ensure what we’re looking to deliver is targeting the most relevant issues and is bespoke to the residents’ needs, this is especially relevant when planning our social value commitments for new developments.

Ensuring our Social Value commitments are delivered optimally

Once we’ve reached the stage where we are developing a social value plan, we use the data and insights available to us to locate and engage with partners in specific areas that dovetail with our strategy. We identify key themes to focus on and harness the most suitable partnerships for delivering optimal value with the community.

We are firmly committed to delivering on our social value and have invested in a team of dedicated personnel. We optimise social value across our portfolio to impact on the areas most in need across our four defined metrics; education to employment, business support and mentoring, community belonging and connectivity and safe and healthy lives.

Our aim is to have a positive impact on every community we have the privilege to work in. From increasing?levels of local employment,?training?to help address the skills gaps in our industry, to supporting charities and social enterprises, and helping to tackle issues faced by those marginalised in our society.

We outlined our social value & sustainability performance in our first ESG report in 2021.?Read it in full to find out more about our approach & ongoing social value initiatives .