Aligning the UK Social Value Bank (UKSVB) and the Sustainability Reporting Standard (SRS)

What is the SRS?

The Sustainability Reporting Standard (SRS) is a voluntary reporting framework, covering 48 criteria across ESG considerations such as zero carbon targets, affordability, safety and resident voice. Over 100 organisations, including housing associations and lenders, have adopted the SRS. 

The social housing sector has strong ESG credentials based on its commitment to providing affordable homes, retrofitting to reduce the carbon impact of housing, and wider activities as placemakers and through community investment. The Good Economy found that 95% of housing providers say the social value is considered in their procurement processes, and with SRS version 2.0 launching in Spring/ Summer 2023, HACT have been dedicated to providing an accessible and usable solution to align social value plans with ESG targets.  

Aligning UKSVB with the SRS  

We worked with a group of housing associations and partners to identify how social value is used in ESG reporting at the moment and how it could be used in the future. The group identified the SRS as the most important framework that the sector would want to align with. Many of the housing associations involved had already or were looking to adopt the SRS. 

HACT performed a mapping exercise with group members and the team at the Good Economy, who have developed the SRS framework. We were able to identify the best fit alignment for values in the UKSVB against the themes and criteria in the SRS. As a result, housing associations will be able to use Social Value insight to report their social value outcomes mapped to the SRS framework.  

Accessing the new functionality  

Social Value Insight has been specifically designed to make social value easy to model, monitor and measure across your organisation. The new SRS reporting functionality is simple to use and provides you with a quick way of reporting your social value impact against the framework.  

The alignment of these social value outcomes from the UK Social Value Bank with the SRS framework has been ratified by The Good Economy.  

This functionality is automatically available to current Social Value Insight subscribers with guidance on how to use it within the HACT platform. If you are not yet a Social Value Insight subscriber, you can book a demo with the social value team to learn more.