Social Value and Sustainability Policy

Creating Social Value is essential for meeting these goals and these can be illustrated by the following types of activity:

Communities

• Health and wellbeing
• Combatting food poverty
• Improving air quality
• Skills and employment
• Education
• Tackling fuel poverty
• Community Funding
• Promoting community cohesion
   

Environment

• Addressing climate change
• Reducing pollution to air, water and soil
• Protecting natural ecosystems and promoting biodiversity
• Flood mitigation

Economy

• Employment opportunities and prospects
• Fair wages
• Organic growth and local supply chain
• Innovation
• Business start ups
• Inward investment
• Circular economy
• Social enterprise
   

Declining resources, increasing pollution, growing pressures on our ecosystem services and increasing inequalities impacting upon social welfare and health are new challenges and we need to explore opportunities to operate in different ways in order to maximise our effectiveness at overcoming them. This means working together within the Council and with other organisations, groups and residents around Coventry to benefit our communities and those who live, work and study in the City. Coventry City Council is seeking to lead by example on the low carbon agenda and aims to be a Zero Carbon sustainable City. The target date for achieving zero carbon status will be set by the partners working across the City once the commitments are declared by the Council and its private, public and voluntary sector partners. The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has set a series of target dates for the region for achieving a percentage reduction to 1990 levels of carbon emissions.
 

Coventry City Council has also endorsed and supported Eurocities call to revise the EU 2030 climate targets to at least 55% by 2030 and up to 65% with the right support, compared to 1990 levels. Coventry City Council has joined 58 cities from across Europe who want to see this more ambitious target, ensuring a green and just recovery across these cities. The Council intends to develop a new Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, which will involve engagement across a broad section of public,
private, voluntary and community agencies with commitments to local and citywide individual and collaborative actions for carbon reduction and delivering sustainable development. The next Strategy and Action Plan therefore will be a Citywide commitment with the stakeholders making their own and collaborative commitments and measurable targets for carbon reduction measures across the City.

An important part of this goal is to reduce the significant health inequalities which exist within the City population. Life expectancies can vary by as much as 10.5 years between the richest and poorest neighbourhoods. Ensuring the health of all Coventry residents is improved by using the Social Value and Sustainability policy to drive policies and practices within the Council, its partners and contractors which will result in more equitable outcomes, taking a proportionate universalism approach, and universal
services are provided proportionate to the level of need.

Coventry City Council will encourage other organisations and businesses to follow its example. We will continue to drive competition and innovation across the City and amongst a range of suppliers, including small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), maximising every opportunity to become energy and resource efficient, as well as promoting supplier diversity through ethical and sustainable procurement practices. We will deliver savings and promote inclusive economic growth which reduces socioeconomic inequality such as providing good quality, secure jobs and supporting the real living wage for their staff.

We will promote supplier diversity through our ethical and sustainable procurement practices; particularly focusing on increasing the number of Voluntary Community Social Enterprises (VCSEs) and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), within the Council’s supply chain. This will be achieved by improving the visibility and accessibility of the Council’s business opportunities, facilitated through direct engagement, supplier workshops and timely promotion of opportunities.

Better Value for Money delivering more for the public pound by requiring your suppliers to do more than ‘just’ deliver the core services

• Increases local spend by rewarding organisations that are local or have a local supply chain, especially SMEs and VCSEs
• Increases opportunities for disadvantaged people and promotes social mobility
• Promotes a responsible supply chain by requiring businesses to compete
• Leads to a cleaner, greener city
• Builds stronger, more resilient communities
• Leads to greater innovation and long-term thinking