Wates Group, a major UK construction company, aims to enhance social value through partnerships with social enterprises (SEs), committing over £20 million by 2020 to create jobs and training for marginalized individuals. The organization demonstrates that spending with SEs generates significantly more social value compared to traditional businesses and highlights the importance of these partnerships for local procurement, brand differentiation, and compliance with regulations. However, challenges remain regarding accessibility, the scale of the sector, and perceptions of SEs as competitive suppliers.

1. Creating social value from working with the social
enterprise sector
Liam Manton, Community Investment Manager

2. Wates Group - Introduction
• Wates Group is one of the largest privately owned construction, development and
maintenance services business in the UK - >£1.5bn t/o; 4,000 employees
• Wates Residential is a national provider of land and planning expertise, contracting,
development and residential joint ventures for both private and public sector
customers across the UK
• Core principle around responsible business which is delivered through our
‘Reshaping Tomorrow’ 2020 strategy

3. Our commitments
Our Goal:
Every project will work with a social enterprise and our investment
to the sector will exceed £20m cumulatively by 2020.
Our Aspiration:
We will enable new jobs and training opportunities for those who are marginalised
from the workplace by supporting the social enterprise sector.

4. Our approach to working with SE’s
• Other external funding
leveraged by Wates to
support the sector
Social
Investment
• Direct Trade between
Wates and Social
Enterprise (SEB)
Direct
Trading
• Major or employee
sponsored awards to
SE’s
Wates
Giving
• Indirect spend
through our clients
and/or supply chain
Indirect
Trading

5. Researching the success
77% Money spent by Wates with SEs generates 77% more social value
compared with commercial businesses
44% More social value created p/a by SEs (£331k) compared to
commercial businesses (£188k)
66% Majority of social value created (£220,000) is from employing people
who face barriers to employment, such as ex-offenders
85% Of participating social enterprises led
by ethnic minority groups
38% 38% of participating social
enterprises led by women

6. Why we buy social
• Meets customers requirements around local procurement and employment
and training
• Differentiation in work winning - we are sector leaders in this field
• Leadership position for Wates – enhances brand and opportunities for
influence and advocacy on policy channels
• Ensures compliance with EU Procurement Regulations
• Enables us to source a new and responsible supply chain that fits Wates’
values
• Alignment to our talent and development programme
• Reinforces our values and drives attraction and retention of people

7. Our challenges
• Accessibility – no ‘one stop shop’ for SE’s which is sector driven
• Scale of sector - relatively small with circa 70,000 across the UK, but
growing
• Geography – very few (if any) SEs with national coverage; more SEs
based in South compared to North
• Commerciality - finding SEs who have the scale to tender competitively
against non SE suppliers
• Perceptions – challenging the culture within our business and
understanding that social enterprises are profit making businesses that can
enhance and diversify our supply chain.