Creating social impact
Our places succeed when the communities living in and around them thrive. We’re making a long-lasting, positive social impact, focusing on education, employment and affordable space. This in turn protects our license to operate and attracts customers.
Through our Social Impact Fund, using an approach that is tailored to the needs of communities, we’re unlocking potential and creating opportunities for local people and partners.
Our 2030 commitments
CREATING LOCAL OPPORTUNITIES
We’ve reached some significant milestones in our social targets.
By focusing on local education initiatives, we're enabling social mobility and inclusivity for people of all stages. Our skills and employment programme, Bright Lights, continues to provide meaningful support, training and job opportunities for local people at every career level.
And continues to grow our support for local organisations by providing affordable, high-quality spaces.
This all generates direct social and economic value for communities around our places, underpinned by our Social Impact Fund.
FOCUSING OUR EFFORTS
Our work on creating positive social impact covers three critical areas, that are important in all our communities – education, employment and affordable space. The way we put these into practice is always place based - tailored around local needs and opportunities for communities at each place. This work is made possible by our Social Impact Fund, driving social and economic value for communities that need it most.
You can find more detail on our performance in our Sustainability Progress Report.
Social Impact Fund
Since 2008, our Social Impact Fund has provided vital funding for charities and projects in and around our places. We’ve made a £25m commitment to 2030, with £6.8m of cash contributions and £5.8m of affordable space since 2020. We focus on initiatives that benefit our communities through education, employment and affordable space, particularly supporting people experiencing social or economic disadvantage. Our Social Impact Committee approves all expenditure from our Fund. This Committee comprises representatives from across the business and is overseen by our ESG Committee. It meets quarterly. We report investment in accordance with the B4SI international standard. To find out more about how our Fund operates, see our Social Impact Funding Guidelines in our Policy library below.
Sustainability Progress Report 2024 Policies & Procedures
Since 2008, our Social Impact Fund has provided vital funding for charities and projects in and around our places. We’ve made a £25m commitment to 2030, with £6.8m of cash contributions and £5.8m of affordable space since 2020. We focus on initiatives that benefit our communities through education, employment and affordable space, particularly supporting people experiencing social or economic disadvantage. Our Social Impact Committee approves all expenditure from our Fund. This Committee comprises representatives from across the business and is overseen by our ESG Committee. It meets quarterly. We report investment in accordance with the B4SI international standard. To find out more about how our Fund operates, see our Social Impact Funding Guidelines in our Policy library below.
Sustainability Progress Report 2024 Policies & Procedures
Education
Our local education programmes support people at all levels to grow skills and strengthen communities. This increases our local talent pool, raises awareness of careers in our sectors and supports young people at risk. By delivering hundreds of education initiatives, we’re on track for our 2030 target. Our partnerships include primary and secondary school projects, college events and university workshops, often involving customers, suppliers and local partners. We encourage all our partners to consider opportunities to develop green skills, supporting a just transition.
Employment
We deliver local training and job opportunities through Bright Lights, our skills and employment programme. This secures the talent our business, suppliers, customers and communities need. Across more than 100 employment initiatives, we’ve delivered pre-employment training, virtual and in-person skills development, mentoring, work placements, graduate schemes, internships and apprenticeships. In these initiatives, we are increasingly seeking to emphasise the development of green skills.
Affordable Space
To grow social impact, we provide high-quality spaces to local community organisations, charities, social enterprises and small businesses for free or at a significant reduction. Part of our affordable space support also includes removing barriers to entry for small, local organisations through leasing and property management assistance.
Social Value
We’ve set a target to directly generate £200m of social and economic value by 2030. This includes £100m from our Social Impact Fund and £100m from SME spending. In addition to this, we are aiming for £100m of indirect value by 2030, primarily through our development activity. We follow the Impact Evaluation Standard framework, and our data is externally audited. This reflects our robust and transparent approach.
National Literacy Trust
Our partnership with the National Literacy Trust has been inspiring children to read for pleasure since 2011, working collaboratively with local schools and our customers. It is the largest and longest collaboration between a business and charity to improve literacy in the UK.
Power of reading for pleasure report
Our partnership with the National Literacy Trust has been inspiring children to read for pleasure since 2011, working collaboratively with local schools and our customers. It is the largest and longest collaboration between a business and charity to improve literacy in the UK.
Power of reading for pleasure reportBroadgate Connect
Our Broadgate Connect employment and training partnership with East London Business Alliance (ELBA) connects Broadgate businesses with local talent. It has been helping East Londoners gain fulfilling jobs and apprenticeships in and around Broadgate since 2012, enabling diverse local hiring for our campus customers and suppliers.
A decade of Broadgate Connect
Our Broadgate Connect employment and training partnership with East London Business Alliance (ELBA) connects Broadgate businesses with local talent. It has been helping East Londoners gain fulfilling jobs and apprenticeships in and around Broadgate since 2012, enabling diverse local hiring for our campus customers and suppliers.
A decade of Broadgate ConnectNDT Broadgate
Together with long-standing partner New Diorama Theatre (NDT) who are based at Regent’s Place, we launched NDT Broadgate to help fuel the recovery of the arts post-pandemic. An independent economic impact assessment revealed that NDT Broadgate generated £40m of additional gross revenue for the UK economy.
Economic Impact of NDT Broadgate
Together with long-standing partner New Diorama Theatre (NDT) who are based at Regent’s Place, we launched NDT Broadgate to help fuel the recovery of the arts post-pandemic. An independent economic impact assessment revealed that NDT Broadgate generated £40m of additional gross revenue for the UK economy.
Economic Impact of NDT Broadgate