Creating A Social Value Framework To Measure Thriving Communities

Trilogy Property is a real estate investment and development company based in London. They find buildings and places with untapped potential and transform them into centres for learning, research, and business.

However, Trilogy struggled to show the social and economic impact of two major projects—the Great Northern Warehouse in Manchester and Republic in London. That’s where we came in. Trilogy asked us to assess the value these developments generated over five years, aiming to:

• Create a framework with them to measure social and economic value across six themes.

• Establish a method to collect data to evaluate the benefits within this framework.

• Demonstrate the overall social and economic value created at these sites to their investors.

Our assessment followed established best practice and guidelines, such as the Cabinet Office Guide to Social Return on Investment and the HM Treasury Green Book. We used social value data from various sources, including the HACT UK Social Value Bank and the Office for National Statistics.

As a result of our work, Trilogy could clearly demonstrate the positive social and economic impact of their projects to current and potential investors. We also identified which activities provided the most value and how local communities benefited.

Now, Trilogy uses this framework to track the social and economic value of their developments annually and plans to apply it to future projects as well. Before this, they lacked a consistent way to measure this impact.