Lauren Bailey has joined property and construction consultancy Ridge, as its head of social value, from Westminster City Council.

At Westminster City Council, Lauren designed and implemented the authority’s overall approach to social value. Lauren embedded social value in contracts, monitoring and evaluating the council’s impact on the local community through jobs, growth, environmental and social benefits.

Lauren Bailey, head of social value at Ridge, comments:

“The built environment has a huge impact on everyone’s lives. Our development and construction projects can bring opportunities and quality of life improvements to people facing a cost-of-living crisis across the UK.

 

“As we develop Ridge’s social value function and guide clients in delivering benefits to communities, there is a huge opportunity for Ridge and our clients to consider innovative ways to support people, charities and start-up businesses in areas where services are delivered.”

Spearheading the council’s social value agenda, Lauren has been at the forefront of integrating social value in the procurement process, scoring suppliers in tenders of over £2million.

Prior to her role at Westminster City Council, Lauren led training routes for Croydon residents and launched an employment service for residents around the Brent redevelopment, bringing first-hand knowledge in creating opportunities for local people and managing CIL funding to promote growth and boost employment.

Ridge senior partner, Adrian O’Hickey, comments:

“Lauren’s enthusiasm, drive and experience of how the public sector evaluates and delivers community benefits, make her one of the few professionals in our industry who can transform our ESG agenda and help our clients in delivering the ‘S’ in their own ESG targets. I am confident that Lauren will lead us in making a positive impact to many people’s lives through the projects and services we deliver.”

Ridge has been formalising its social value measurement and reporting, focusing on jobs, apprenticeships, services, investment and the environment. Lauren brings her expertise in setting criteria for assessing net benefits of projects on local areas, to elevate Ridge’s impact on people and communities.