"Use Community Value Charters as fast-track to building back better high streets"

UNDER EMBARGO 00.01 AM GMT Saturday 20 June:

The Grimsey Review ‘Build Back Better, Covid-19 Supplement for town centres, released Saturday 20 June has recommended that to give communities a bigger role to unlock their potential, Localis’s ‘Community Value Charter’ model - as introduced in a recent report ‘Brighten All Corners – maximising social value in place’ – should be adopted by all local authorities.

Under this model, based on the format of the Local Plan, councils would be required to give communities a greater say in the benefits received in the commissioning of local services from commercial suppliers.

In response, Localis chief executive, Jonathan Werran, said: “In the teeth of the biggest recession in recorded history, our under-threat high streets must make maximum use of social value from public service commissioning to aid their necessary transformation for survival.

“The social value agenda presents the most direct and immediate route to building back better socially and making the government’s ‘levelling-up’ agenda for rebalancing the economy come together.

“The Grimsey Review’s support for Localis’s ‘Community Value Charter’ model - which requires councils to give communities a greater say in the benefits received in the commissioning of local services from commercial suppliers - will, we hope, inspire local government and the wider public sector to pick up and run with a simple and effective way to kickstart the long journey from lockdown to recovery.”

ENDS

Press enquiries:

Jonathan Werran, chief executive, Localis
(Telephone) 0870 448 1530 / (Mobile) 07967 100328 / (Email) jonathan.werran@localis.org.uk

Notes to Editors:

1. A full copy of the Localis report which introduced the concept of Community Value Charters can be accessed here: “Brighten All Corners – maximising social value in place”

1. About Localis

Localis is an independent think-tank dedicated to issues related to politics, public service reform and localism. We carry out innovative research, hold events and facilitate an ever growing network of members to stimulate and challenge the current orthodoxy of the governance of the UK.

1. Brighten All Corners Report Recommendations

The Government should revise the Social Value Act with a local element requiring councils to produce Community Value Charters to define goals and priorities for residents.

Community Value Charters should be publicly available and define where social value offers would be best targeted as an aid to both commissioners and contractors placing bids.

As with Local Plans, Community Value Charters should be open to public consultation and review.

Community Value Charters should also be consulted on with a representative number of stakeholders from SMEs as well as large partner businesses.

The Government should define a list of approved social value metrics for quantifying the social value element of a tender.

Community Value Charters should be approved by DCMS into the broader Civil Society Strategy.

• Councils and contractors should set out a timeframe and measure for a re-evaluation of a social value initiative, with the possibility to break the contract if it is not being delivered.

An infographic of the Community Value Charters model can be downloaded here: