Social Housing and Social Value Have More than Just a Word in Common
There is an inevitable connection between property services for social housing and social value. Property services partners are active in the communities they serve and can often be the first point of contact for residents. In many ways they are uniquely positioned to make an impact.
Decisions made about how resources are deployed can have an impact on the physical, emotional and economic wellbeing of a community. Given this potential to do positive good, it’s natural and welcome that social value is becoming an increasingly prominent factor in the selection of property services partners.
As a family-owned business, Osborne has a long history of community engagement and delivering social value through our contracts. From our experience, we know that structure and accountability are every bit as important as good intentions. What also matters is effective consultation. Social value has a local context. Ultimately, communities decide what is valuable.
Resident Voice and Meaningful Value
The strengthening of the resident voice through the Social Housing White Paper is a further opportunity to coordinate social value activities in ways that are more meaningful and valued by communities.
We know that the greatest social value is delivered when we work strategically with communities. We can then address real needs and invest in programmes with long-term benefits in terms of employment, skills and community infrastructure. The benefits of these will endure beyond the duration of the contract. Sustainable outcomes are what drives maximum social value creation.
In many ways this is the critical shift in thinking. In any aspect of business lasting value is driven by investment. The investment mindset is less transactional. It is more focused on building self-sustaining structures that multiply opportunities and value over time.
The other critical component is collaboration. The whole is often greater than the sum of the parts when social value is a coordinated process that engages residents, our customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. We welcome the increasing focus on social value and are looking forward to building on what we have already delivered together with our partners.
