Social value: Doing good by doing good business

What is social value and why does it matter?

Social value is the lifeblood of Cratus. We may not always have called it ‘social value’ but it’s what we always have done.

Cratus was founded in 2009 from the desire to add genuine value and to make things happen – for our clients and for the communities where they work. We have always been proud to advocate for the delivery of sustainable housing, regeneration of our high streets, renewable energy, employment, local services and integrated communities.

Our Communities team helps our clients to understand what adds genuine value within the communities where they operate. This puts people at the heart of placemaking and helps build trust and support, while understanding what ‘value’ means in different places and for different social groups.

Our Planning team helps our clients to deliver homes, key infrastructure and long-term employment opportunities, new settlements and speciality housing from student accommodation and co-living at one end of the scale to retirement villages and later living communities at the other. Understanding the language and context of local government and decision-making is key to creating benefits for new communities and creating real and lasting social value.

In the Public Affairs arena, nobody understands local government like we do, and nobody delivers more social value than local authorities. We make connections between the public and private sector that bring local stakeholders together to unlock investment and create opportunities to deliver social value at every level.

Cratus ESG helps our clients and local authorities develop sustainable strategies to promote positive social impacts in their organisation and communities in which they serve.

In the coming weeks, we will be shining a light on what our partners and clients are doing in the social value space – highlighting best practice and bringing some examples to life.

We believe that social value is most effective when it is highly targeted, making tangible differences to people’s lives. Social value should be understood and delivered at a local level and at Cratus, our world is local…