“I’m noticing that where a contractor might ordinarily rely on their supply chain to plan and deliver social value on a project, they are now stepping forward to become an involved point of contact – supporting or even orchestrating delivery.
“It’s no longer a case of making social value somebody else’s problem. We are acknowledging it’s a collective responsibility to ensure the best version of a project goes ahead. Clients are asking us, and their partners, how we can do that together… collaboratively.
“As the year goes on, I think we’ll see people becoming more comfortable with what’s possible and moving towards those visions with confidence and ambition - replacing fear and apprehension.”
“Historically, we’re often told it’s best to hold back and be ‘the first person to be second’. But that might stop being the case now we have tools available to analyse our plans within seconds. Technology may begin the trend of more people taking more calculated risk - especially when it comes to social value.
“For example, you can do a rough local needs analysis in a few seconds now, using AI. It won’t be perfect, but it will give you a data-backed idea of what a community needs. Fast access to a broad summary contextualising local needs might mean you reconsider where a financial donation lands – or whether it is relevant at all. Access to, and reliable interpretation of, data and context might inspire businesses to consider allocating their available resources more strategically. What do we have, where is it relevant, who will benefit? Technology will help us (quickly) consider and assess the allocation of resources to maximise opportunities in communities.”
“My network in social value has expanded significantly in the last year, primarily because of the work we do at CHY and our focus on creating lasting partnerships. It means that when one piece of work comes to an end, both sides are looking for an opportunity to collaborate again.
“Hatch Digital are a good example of this. We worked together in 2025 (on Construction York) where our complimentary skills became multipliers to the project achievement, going far and beyond what could have been achieved by either of us alone. When we work together, suddenly we've got an offer that people haven’t seen before. We collaborate. We innovate. It’s exciting.”
“If you don't ask the questions about what's possible, you'll never achieve as much as you could.
“At CHY we always throw the bar up as high as we can to start with, then work out what’s possible with the resources available. That allows us to prioritise and retain the important parts, as opposed to building something the other way around and focusing on the bottom line.
“It changes the attitude of people from being ‘how do we protect what we're making on this project’ to ‘how do we protect the community that we're building this project in?’ And that's social value in a nutshell.”
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