Social value
Reimagining places for people to thrive.
Social value is a golden thread that runs throughout our business. We believe that giving opportunities for people to thrive is just as important as new buildings and infrastructure.
Our Social Value Strategy
We care about the good we as a business can do for the economy, for our communities, and for society. Launched in 2020, our five-year social value strategy has three key themes:
CHALLENGING INEQUALITY
Helping those furthest from the workforce.
We want to change people’s lives for the better, and support groups who face barriers to work. For example, those who’ve been through the criminal justice system, and ex-service individuals. Our Residential, FM and Developments businesses are accredited with the Living Wage Foundation to champion the real Living Wage.
INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION
Inspiring and educating young people about this sector.
We want to diversify and widen our talent pool, and more young people to discover the brilliant careers in the built environment. Since 2020, we’ve engaged 80,000 young people and hope to reach 100,000 by 2025. We run education outreach programmes to young people from primary school through to college. Our aim is to support them to raise aspirations, develop their potential and learn about the world of work. This includes assemblies and workshops in schools, and work experience through our T-Level placements, and summer programme.
SUPPORTING THRIVING COMMUNITIES
Supporting and scaling up social enterprises.
Social enterprises are businesses which trade for a social or environmental purpose. We have spent over £31m with social enterprises since 2020 and are targeting £45m by 2025. Through our ASSETS programme Wates employees support social enterprises to scale, mentoring them to develop and grow their businesses. We’re a founding partner of the Buy Social Corporate Challenge, a consortium of businesses who together want to spend £1bn with social enterprises by 2026.
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