In real estate development, community engagement is the process of involving the community – those who will feel the impact of a project most closely – in every stage of planning and design.
Sadly, it’s often treated as an afterthought. But when guided by a robust Social Value framework such as the Social Value TOM System™, community engagement can be a powerful tool to inspire trust from residents and create developments that empower local people.
Trust between developers and local communities has broken down
A 2019 UK-wide survey by Grosvenor identified an alarmingly high rate of public distrust in the planning system – specifically concerning private developers.
- Just 2% of respondents trusted developers to “act in an honest way in large-scale development”
- Local councils garnered only slightly higher levels of confidence at 7%
The study made one thing clear: people do not feel that places are being created with their best interests in mind.
This disconnect between the planning system and the public can be attributed to many factors, but Grosvenor hypothesises that it is primarily a leadership failure and communication breakdown, with survey findings indicating that respondents did not feel that developers and local councils were driven by the needs of local communities.
We suspect that this distrust may be further driven by a lack of ownership over the development process and final result. After all, confidence in a mutually beneficial objective (as ensured by joint ownership) is a core psychological driver of trust.
Trust develops through interaction and accountability. Public trust can only be restored if channels of communication between developers, local authorities, and the public are strengthened. Along with this, it’s critical to demonstrate a true intention to build places that maximise value for the community.
This just in: Social Value Portal will be replicating the 2019 Grosvenor study in 2025 to examine how public trust has shifted over the last half decade.
Community engagement: A powerful trust-building tool
The goal of community engagement should be to co-create solutions that genuinely address local needs and capitalise on existing opportunities and strategies. In turn, this enables communities to help shape their future environments – bridging the trust gap.
Unfortunately, community engagement in practice is often viewed as a compulsory tick box exercise, or a one-sided marketing campaign to laud the basic benefits of the scheme without really listening to the needs of the community.
This is the reality we see reflected in the dishearteningly low levels of trust in developers and local authorities.
In these instances, developers fail to recognise the ingenuity and creativity of communities in responding to their own needs – if only presented with the right mechanisms of change, collaborators, and a common platform for communicating and addressing emergent needs.
Therefore, good community engagement cannot be a unidirectional effort. Effective engagement hinges on open, two-way communication, where developers ethically inform affected communities about the full expected impacts – both positive and negative impacts – and development process.
This is an opportunity to actively listen to the lived experiences and perspectives of community members on material considerations. And it should be followed by formal commitments from the developer to integrate these insights into the development strategy.
Community engagement sits at the heart of a Social Value strategy
Involving the community transforms development schemes from top-down initiatives into a cooperative process where local voices play a leading role. Moreover, it serves to ‘sense check’ assumptions around what a given community might want or need.
While community engagement is generally a legal requirement on large developments, it is also an opportunity to create a Social Value strategy for your development that responds effectively to local needs.
For instance, once the developer has identified specific local challenges and priorities, they can use the Themes, Outcomes and Measures of the Social Value TOM System™ to plan and execute targeted initiatives.
What does Social Value-based community engagement look like in practice?
So, how should you approach community engagement? Well, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to community engagement. It’s a dynamic process that should be tailored to each community’s unique makeup, needs, and preferences.
That answer may be frustrating – but it also affords us an excellent opportunity to design a community engagement process with Social Value at its core. Here are some of the key steps to prioritise.
Identify affected communities
Identifying the “affected community” in any development requires careful, deliberate consideration, and is the essential first step in any community engagement plan. Not all stakeholders are immediately visible, and some only emerge at later stages in a development’s lifecycle.
Conduct local needs research
Tools like stakeholder mapping and Local Needs Assessments are invaluable at early stages of engagement. They give developers crucial insight into who makes up the community and their priorities through geospatial deprivation data.
Once a local need profile is established, developers can approach the community from a more informed perspective, presenting the development (including its construction phase) as a holistic vehicle for change.
💡 Learn more about Local Needs Assessments
Establish your target Social Value outcomes
Depending on the project, the goals of specific engagement exercises may vary.
They might include filling information gaps, raising awareness, identifying opportunities for partnership, A/B testing specific design or process options, or simply creating an avenue for residents to voice their thoughts on what’s working, what’s not, and what they’d like to see changed.
Decide on your engagement methods
Engagement efforts often involve both online and in-person initiatives to maximise reach and inclusivity. Key methods include:
- Surveys: Reaching a wide cross-section of the community to gather initial feedback or test specific ideas.
- Social Value focus groups and key stakeholder workshops: Deep dives with key individuals in the community, such as local government representatives and advocacy groups, to explore complex or multi-layered issues.
- Drop-in sessions: Offering flexible, casual spaces where residents can learn about the project, ask questions, and provide input.
- Community design informants: Engaging local representatives who advocate for the community’s interests throughout the design process with guided reflection around their lived experiences, ensuring the project evolves with ongoing community feedback.
- General communications: Regular updates via newsletters, social media, and community boards to keep everyone informed and involved.
Feed back to the community
Finally, an essential part of community engagement is reporting back to the community on how their feedback has been incorporated and what it has influenced. Sharing this information through a "you said, we did" document fosters transparency and helps maintain trust.
Social Value provides a useful tool for communicating specific and targeted actions that will be undertaken to work towards desired outcomes identified in consultation. Creating this feedback loop also provides an opportunity for a new round of engagement, addressing any remaining questions and ensuring that the conversation remains open and responsive to ongoing change.
Success stories: Using community engagement to create Social Value
These recent projects highlighted the power of effective community engagement in driving better outcomes for all.
Oldham Youth Council
Real estate developer Muse contracted Social Value Portal to support the creation of a Social Value strategy for the Oldham town centre regeneration. After our Local Needs Analysis found high levels of deprivation in the area regarding young people, this area of need became a core focus for the strategy.
In response, Muse and Social Value Portal lead a two-hour youth engagement workshop with the Oldham Youth Council, a group of young people in Oldham representing the views and priorities of their peers.
33 council members, aged 11-21, were given a project overview, as well as an introduction to Social Value. The council members then worked in teams to brainstorm Oldham’s top challenges and strengths – mapping them to the Themes of the TOM System and drafting a Social Value proposal to address one key priority that they had identified.
Findings from this session were synthesised into the Social Value Framework Strategy and linked to delivery commitments that would inform individual planning applications within the town centre.
Oldham Youth engagement workshops
Landsec: 55 Old Broad Street
When Social Value Portal helped Landsec build a Social Value strategy for its 55 Old Broad Street Development, gaining insight into the local community was a top priority.
To encourage community involvement in the development, we helped Landsec host four ‘Reimagining 55 Old Broad Street’ community consultation events. The sessions brought together residents, workers and other local representatives, and even commissioned 31 London-based artists, mostly from groups underrepresented in the arts.
With attendance from over 400 people and dozens of survey responses, these events played a huge role in the subsequent success of the development, which is projected to create as much as £598 million of Social Value.
💡 Learn more about the 55 Old Broad Street Social Value strategy
More insights on Social Value in planning
Want to learn more about how the planning phase can create more impactful developments?
Watch this dedicated panel discussion from the 2024 Social Value Conference, featuring experts from Muse, Salford City Council, and the Better Building Partnership: Unlocking Social Value through long term use of assets
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