Community Benefits of Social Investments

Introduction

Stratford, which originally began as a hamlet in the North West part of West Hams ancient parish has over the years urbanised which has saw it expand, grow population wise and also merged with other neighbouring districts. One major investment that stands in Stratford is the Westfield Stratford city which is home to over 50 stores and also considered to be one of Europe`s largest shopping centres. This study will do an assessment of the different ways through which the investments in Stratford have impacted on the social way of life of the people of Stratford. We seek to establish whether these investments have improved healthcare, administration of education, fostered youth development, contributed to the protection of the environment and also aided in the promotion of public safety.

From time, the decision to invest comes down to weighing ones options and establishing the right fit. There exist many different investment options that range from stocks to bond and even real estate and it is worth noting that the decision processes before investing involve the making of decisions on the areas where there is the highest likelihood of making money while also minimising risks. Over the years, there is another form of investment that has been gaining popularity and this involves investing money, earning profits while also promoting social good at the same time. In this form of investments, making money is not the only goal but also to better societies.

Generally, social impacts are the different ways through which the actions of individuals, businesses and even organisations affect surrounding communities (Vörösmarty ET AL., 2018). The impacts could come about as a result of programs, projects, policies and activities and these impacts could either be negative or positive and also either intentional or unintentional. These impacts could have far reaching impacts on people in different communities, countries and states and could also be felt by those who have direct associations with organisations.

Businesses are always at will to incorporate into their operations, social good, putting efforts to ensure that they build benefits that are far-reaching that their customers and surrounding communities benefit from. In the world of today, customers from all over the world are aware that the purchases they make speak volumes and many have been observed to show preference for businesses that incorporate social impact ideals that are positive within their models of business. For businesses, social impacts are not always realised from the products and services they market but also in the ways the businesses function and operate (Epstein and Yuthas, 2017). There are organisations that offer their members of staff grants and also encourage them to take part in volunteer abroad placements whenever they go for vacations and further match the hours worked with financial donations from the companies to pre-designed charities. There are others that encourage their employees to donate their paid time off to working with charities of their choice.

Social needs have been increasing in majority of the places in the world including Stratford requiring the delivery of socials services in ways that are more effective and efficient. From public expenditure trends, it is quite clear that large chunks of social protection budgets are taken up by public expenditure and there are even instances when this exceeds cash spending. However, the delivery of social services is a subject that is rather complex and that has different specificities and also challenges potentially for organisations that deal with delivery of services as well as for models of social impact investment. The type and extent of need determines the extent to which different types of investments impact the social life of different communities. Another determining factor is demand for improvement across different social outcomes (Adams et al., 2016).

Criteria for evaluation

This report proposes that there are five key criteria for comprehending and assessment of investments social impacts. These criteria are:

Impact – what is he effect on the society and also the environment?

Differential impact – who gets to benefit and who does not benefit?

Aggregation of the impact at a portfolio and also investment level

Accountability- do employees have a voice?

Plausible causality - are there any differences that have come about from the investment?

Global Examples of investments that have a social impact

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Packard Foundation) makes grants and other program related investments that are in line with the organisations mission and that include the conservation and also restoration of the natural systems of the earth. The Packard foundation has in the past had an investment of USD 1 million that was utilised to naturally manage up to 13,000 acres of forest land (the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, n.d.). The investment generated financial returns for investors from the sale of timber, tax credits and also ecological services.

Another investment that has had meaningful social impacts is Gray Ghost DOEN Ventures Coöperatief which was established with the sole intention of providing early-stage enterprises that in innovative ways apply technologies that have been proven to be of service to undeserved populations in the developing world with capital. One of the beneficiaries of this investment is the Beam Money Private Limited (Beam) which is an Indian mobile payment services company through which subscribers are able to make payments electronically without the need for a bank account. Through the aid of the capital from Gray Ghost Ventures, Beam was able to develop a franchise business model that enabled them to develop new products and services and further accelerated their expansion geographically (the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, n.d.).

Another example is LGT Ventures which invests in companies that are purpose driven and whose models of business are scalable providing individuals who are disadvantaged with livelihood opportunities in growth markets and also products and services that are essential. The company is a private equity impact investor that targets positive social and environmental impacts while also targeting financial returns (LGT Venture Philanthropy, 2020). Dr. Consulta is one of the beneficiaries of LGT Impact Ventures. She provides the low-income population of Brazil with specialty healthcare at a low cost and also diagnostic services.

Social impact measurement

Measurement of impact is an evolving practice that is usually adopted by organisations that are mission-driven, sustainable development organisations and even impact investors. For measurement of the levels of satisfaction of beneficiaries and also outcomes in Stratford, questionnaires will be administered to different residents of Stratford. It is worth noting that often, only a slice of data is unveiled by surveys and a hybrid approach is most suitable for measurement of social impacts. In the absence of an integrated analysis, superficial survey data poses dangers to the integrity of data.

Areas of social impact

While the identification of a businesses` social impacts is easy, measurement of the same is not easy. Even with that, the comprehension of the effects companies have on societies and environments is quite important for the achievement of sustainability. There are three dimensions to sustainability which are: social, economic and environmental, all of which are interlinked. For instance, good social conditions are required for the protection of natural conditions and these good social conditions are unlikely to be enjoyed in the case war erupts. Also, society’s survival requires natural environments that are supportive and that are not ravaged by changes in climate. It is worth noting that none of this would ever come about unless scarce resources that are at our disposal are managed successfully in both environmental and financial terms. And in social impact terms.

While different companies have social goals in that they do things that others in societies find useful and are willing to pay money for. Communities are also impacted on by companies. And that is particularly those companies that have direct impacts that are significant on natural environments like the extraction of oil and also mining, heavy manufacturing and agriculture. To a large extent, it matters to those individuals who leave close to these operations how these companies carry out their operations and the degree of care that is taken, for instance, over health impacts.

Workers living conditions are inescapable parts of company’s social responsibilities. There are even more powerful social impacts around the removal of communities and clearing of land to facilitate operations. Profound social impacts could come about from mega investments like the construction of dams. At their worst, they are capable of destroying lives and at their best, destroy ways of life.

Any companies investing in any place also have the responsibility of ensuring human rights and labour relations are upheld. For investments to have meaningful impacts on societies, it would be necessary to ensure that there is no discrimination in the management of staff, their promotion, and training and, also, decent working conditions need to be maintained. The identification of all these impacts is way easier than their measurement. The measurement of social impacts is not very easy and that is because the reduction of human experiences to numbers equates to failure in capturing some part of it. That does not, however, imply that any forms of measurement are useless. What it implies is that, the complacent reliance on a set of numbers would in the long run not be satisfactory.

There are different social impacts that could be measured more easily but which many companies putting up investments are always show reluctance in being transparent about. Tax is one such social impact. One of the most important contributions made to societies is the payment of tax. Payment of tax is also one aspect that companies tend to be very secretive about and that is because those countries where these companies add value in through their operations, often, bear less relations to those where they are liable for taxes. Companies should also work to ensure that their operations facilitate the provision of health and human services. That would be achieved through the provision of effective health and human services which would foster advancements in public health, medicine and social services. That also protects the health and well-being of the people of Stratford.

Any investments should also ensure that future generations will have access to clean air and water. They could achieve this through the creation of awareness about climate change and the further protection and connection of nature to facilitate the vibrant growth of Stratford. Programs of youth development also need to be developed that are capable of helping children to achieve their full potential through focusing on programs that build skills: cognitive, physical, emotional, ethical and also social.

It is worth pointing out that companies social impacts go far beyond the types of substantive consequences that are listed above. Social impact, at its broadest, includes anything that has an impact on the relationships between stakeholders and the company: from the reliability of payment of suppliers and even the amounts paid to the ways through which products affect the ways of lives of communities.

Methodology

A descriptive survey research design is used in this study. That, determines and further reports the way things are through description of respondent’s possible behaviours, values, attitudes and also characteristics. Both closed and open ended questionnaires will be used in this study for provision of a representative sample from different people living in Stratford. This study`s population is made up of different residents of Stratford who were picked using simple random sampling procedures. Several options have been explored in terms of the method that is most appropriate for data collection. While interviews would also have been appropriate, the amounts of data that would be collected from interviews would not be sufficient for the questions this study intends to answer. The use of questionnaires enables the researcher to gather large volumes of information in a manner that is timely while also ensuring that a sample size that is reasonable is obtained. The use of questionnaires also eliminates any bias that could come up in the event data was collected only from the use of questionnaires (Patten, 2016).

For purposes of legitimising this study, the researcher uses a properly structured introductory statement. The introductory statements contents include a clear statement of the study`s purpose. An assurance is given to the respondents that their anonymity will be maintained which is done with the intention of ensuring that they do not feel in any way that the information could be used against them. There is an emphasis in the questionnaires that there are neither correct nor wrong answers which acts to reassure respondents that they are not stupid.

To refine the design of the questionnaire and for further identification of errors, pre-testing of the questionnaires was done. A golden rule for pre-testing is that the questionnaire used in pre-testing always has to be as similar as possible to the final group and the conditions within which it takes place have to be similar to those of administration of the actual questionnaire (McGuirk and O`Neill, 2016). Individuals involved in pre-testing will be excluded from the final questionnaire.

Results and analysis

From the different respondents of the study`s questionnaires, it was discovered that Westfield\ Stratford City and the London Olympics are the most prominent investments to have ever been witnessed in Stratford. We turned our focus to the social impacts of these two investments from our initial findings.

Through significant urban regeneration the different investments in Stratford have transformed the place that was formerly an industrial site into a community hub. For instance, the hosting of the London Olympics saw Stratford attract up to 5.5 million visitors on a weekly basis and during the Paralympics games, up to 3 million visitors visited Stratford. The different investments in Stratford are observed to focus on building relationships with the surrounding communities in their design, operation and even development. It is observed that they prioritise on understanding the desires of the local communities through public consultations and these are subsequently incorporated into the designs. For instance, for purposes of undertaking a substantive program of a two-way engagement of the locals between 2007 and 2008, Soundings and public consultation specialists were engaged by Westfield. The focus of this arrangement, form the onset, was on early engagement of local people into the functioning of the public space.

There was also close partnership between Westfield and the local government London Borough of Newham in an effort that was aimed at maximising the benefit of the scheme for the borough and that is particularly to the creation of jobs. During the construction of Westfield Stratford City, up to 27,000 jobs were created in construction and it is worth noting that over 10% of the workforce was made up by residents of Newham (Stratford Metropolitan Masterplan Supporting Document: Socio-economic Impacts Paper, 2012). Additionally, in the city`s construction site, there were over 180 trainees and apprentices. For achievement of construction goals and timelines, an in-house employment and skills team was created together with an onsite centre for training and recruitment. Additionally, substantial government funding was also secured that was aimed at supporting pre-employment training for different people and the National Skills Academy for Construction status was also achieved.

The completion of Westfield Stratford City saw the creation of up to 10,000 jobs on a permanent basis in hotel and leisure and also in retail and majority of the workers reside in Stratford. There has been an increase in the levels of employment in the Stratford Area since Westfield Stratford City began operating. In 2011, Aspers Casino which had opened eight weeks after the opening of Westfield centre had already employed its Year 3 forecast numbers and the residents of Stratford were given exclusive access to most of the job opportunities that arose there. By the end of 2011, up to 400 individuals had been recruited on a permanent basis and over 70% of the positions were filled by residents of Stratford (UNIBAIL-RODAMCO-WESTFIELD, 2017).

The operations of Westfield City have seen an improvement of local transport and this is one sector where Westfield Stratford City has really left a mark having invested £150 million euros in public transport. Westfield, in line with their planning arrangements established the Stratford Transport Implementation Group that was made up of four neighbouring boroughs; Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest and Newham together with Transport for London, Westfield and the Olympic Delivery Authority (Long, 2018). Over time, the group has been putting effort to provide a forum that is democratic for presentation of opportunities for improvement of infrastructure by the local authorities from which they get to assess them, vote on them and continue to meet for allocation of available funding for local infrastructure projects. The investments by Westfield in transport infrastructure consisted of massive public transport system improvements that created links between Stratford and the local boroughs and even beyond. Also, there were major enhancements of the bus system which included the addition bus routes, contributions to the Over-ground scheme of London including station improvements in Hackney which is one of the boroughs of London. There have also been improvements in both cycle and pedestrian access like new cycle paths that link to the site. The changes and advancements in infrastructure provide the community of Stratford with a transport network that is unrivalled with the centre connecting two of the biggest transportation hubs: Stratford Regional and Stratford International. Stratford Regional is set to be the 9th busiest station in the United Kingdom while Stratford International creates a direct link with continental Europe on network completion.

There are also several local community facilities that have come about from the operation of Westfield Stratford City. The benefits include a Skills place and a Worship centre, an on-site retail academy. The retail academy is a permanent centre for training for those individuals who work at the centre together with their employees and also the members of the local community; the general population. There are also parent and family rooms that have been incorporated into Westfield that include children playing areas.

With the continued evolving of the site of Stratford City it is expected that even more community facilities will continue to be established as part of the north residential development including schools and community health centres. The role of the centre will continue being that of a key economic force in the local area and this is both through the immediate impacts of the commercial operations of the centre and also the broad-flow on effect that comes about from the integration of large public facilities with infrastructure, the community and also the government.

London Olympics

It is worth noting that following the closure that most people lost their jobs after the closure of the London Dock`s in the 1960s. Stratford had one of the most deprived communities with rampant unemployment levels and poor health conditions. The quality of the environment was poor and infrastructure was also poorly developed. The Olympic park which was renamed Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park after the games were over. In the past, Stratford did not have a leisure economy. Over GBP 300 million was invested by the government of the United Kingdom for the transformation of the Olympic site into the Queen Elizabeth Park. The new park now has business spaces, health centres, new schools, houses and also venues for sporting activities.

There has also been an emerging economy from the Olympics which has been observed to enhance instead of reducing social divisions through the creation of new jobs and also relocations through new housing schemes under construction. During the construction of the park, there were 46,000 people who were employed to assist with the construction activities, out of which 10% had previously been unemployed. Stratford produced a good percentage of this workforce.

After the games, GBP I Billion was invested by a youth sport strategy over the five years that followed the games and about 6,000 new community sports clubs were established. Further, GBP 65 million was provided by the Department of Education aimed at encouraging the efforts of physical education teachers towards organisation of competitive sports and also embedding best practices and training other teachers of primary schools (del Olmo, 2014). Stratford also benefited from the official London 2012 education programme dubbed “Get Set” that was in operation for four years in the UK providing teaching resources that were flexible for over 6 million young people spread out in up to 25,000 schools that assisted them in learning even more about the 2012 Games in London, the values of Paralympics and Olympics and also about global citizenship (BBC, 2018). There were over 2,000 community projects whose design was in such a way that they educated the young in the UK about sports, art, health and fitness that were inspired by the Olympic and Paralympic games. Stratford also benefited from this immensely.

There have however, also been negative impacts socially. For instance, during the construction of the park, the Clays Lane Peabody Estate was brought down and that led to the displacement of over 400 tenants and also Manor Gardens Society allotments and Lower Lea Valley businesses which are Gypsy and Traveller sites.

The Olympics also led to an increase in securitisation with up to 12000 police having been involved in maintenance of security around London during the course of the games. US officials brought with them close to 1,000 agents some of whom were armed for protection of their contestants and also diplomats. This was something that had not been witnessed by the local people of Stratford and they were now even forced to go through stops and searches. This to a large extent disrupted the way of life of the local Stratford community.

There was also a distortion of the residential property markets. The Olympic Village was converted to over 2,800 flats distributed across 11 residential plots that have balconies, gardens and courtyards that are quite spacious. The prices of houses around the Olympic area were observed to increase differentially from the time the bid decision was approved. It is worth noting that the Olympic effect on the prices of properties has not been even which has made areas like Stratford to become unaffordable to individuals from families whose incomes are low. Some social trends that have come about from this rise include the increased attractiveness of new developments located between Canary and Stratford to corporate and overseas buyers (Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the surrounding area Five year strategy: 2015-2020, 2016). It is worth noting that this is a market whose activities are facilitated by London`s main real estate firms operation and whose activities have been observed to be increasingly globalised (London 2012 Olympics Regeneration legacy evaluation framework, 2015).

The Olympic park`s creation together with its wider development brought about unprecedented changes to Stratford. The Park had a comprehensive programme of acquisition of land, remediation and even development and was created on a site that was largely inaccessible and derelict and that was fragmented in terms of urban form and use. As a result of the games, it would be safe to conclude that Stratford looks, feels and functions differently (LONG-TERM LEGACY AND IMPACTS, n.d.). It is worth noting that while these are changes that would have come about even if the Games never happened, they would be far less integrated and would take significantly longer.

References

Adams, C.A., Potter, B., Singh, P.J. and York, J., (2016). Exploring the implications of integrated reporting for social investment (disclosures). The British Accounting Review, 48(3), pp.283-296.

Epstein, M.J. and Yuthas, K., (2017). Measuring and improving social impacts: A guide for nonprofits, companies and impact investors. Routledge.

McGuirk, P.M. and O'Neill, P., (2016). Using questionnaires in qualitative human geography.

Patten, M.L., (2016). Questionnaire research: A practical guide. Routledge.

Vörösmarty, C.J., Osuna, V.R., Koehler, D.A., Klop, P., Spengler, J.D., Buonocore, J.J., Cak, A.D., Tessler, Z.D., Corsi, F., Green, P.A. and Sánchez, R., (2018). Scientifically assess impacts of sustainable investments. Science, 359(6375), pp.523-525.