L&Q Foundation generates £23.5m social value

L&Q Foundation generates £23.5m social value

L&Q’s charitable foundation has today announced record numbers in a report of its performance for the last year.^[1]

The L&Q Foundation was established in 2011 to help residents and the communities they live in, inspired by the housing association’s vision that ‘no-one should be denied the opportunity to achieve their full potential because of where they live.’

The L&Q Foundation 2018 report revealed:

• The Foundation’s activities have generated £23.5million of social value^[2]
• Nearly 450 residents in crisis were helped to keep their tenancies on track
• L&Q’s financial advice and debt support service helped 2,700 residents get £8million of extra income
• Over 6,500 young people took part in a range of activities including sport, arts and culture

The Foundation’s work is split into three areas: Independent lives, successful places and social responsibility.

The Independent Lives team aims to increase the number of residents entering and sustaining employment. Over one in four L&Q residents are unemployed, which is significantly higher than the national average. In 2017/18, L&Q helped nearly 600 residents into work and over 250 took part in training or work experience.

The Successful Places team aims to create engaged and active communities. Some of this year’s activities have focused on creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, providing opportunities to exercise or learn more about healthy eating and how to shop and cook nutritious meals. Other activities have focused on reducing isolation amongst the most vulnerable residents, working together with L&Q Living. Around 2000 people benefited from one of these projects.

The Social Responsibility team ensure the business is carried out sustainably, ethically and responsibly.

The coming 12 months will see the launch of some big, exciting initiatives including a place making fund and a schools partnership programme.

Waqar Ahmed, Group Director Finance for L&Q, said: “As a charitable housing association, at the heart of what we do is the positive impact we make to our residents and the communities they live in. This goes beyond just building houses. We create and invest in communities so that our residents have access to increased opportunity and aspiration so that they have the same life chances as those living anywhere else in London or beyond.”

ENDS

Notes to editor:

About L&Q

• L&Q is a regulated housing association and one of the UK’s most successful social businesses. We house around 250,000 people in 92,000 homes, primarily across London and the South East.
• As a not-for-profit organisation, we reinvest all the money we make into new and existing homes, creating successful communities and providing excellent services.
• Everything we do begins with social purpose. We were founded in the 1960s to provide quality, affordable homes for the most vulnerable in society, and that fundamental mission is what drives us today.
• We invest in a £250 million community Foundation and £5 million a year skills academy to build opportunity and confidence in our communities. We work with partners through the L&Q Foundation to deliver greater charitable outcomes.
• As a charitable housing association our role goes beyond providing homes and housing services. We are a long-term partner in the neighbourhoods where we work. We hope to build aspiration, opportunity and confidence among residents through our £250m community foundation and our skills academy. 
• Our care and support subsidiary, L&Q Living, provides housing assistance for older people and those with support needs.
• For further information please visit www.lqgroup.org.uk

About HACT’s Wellbeing Valuation approach

We use the Housing Association’s Charitable Trust (HACT) Wellbeing Valuation approach to measure social value generated by the work the Foundation does.

The approach uses the Social Value Bank, which places a monetary figure on social activities that are traditionally more difficult to quantify. It has

been developed for the housing sector and includes the most common outcomes associated with community investment activities that improve an

individual’s wellbeing such as getting a job, taking part in sporting activities or feeling more in control of life.

Each value is equivalent to how much money an individual would have to receive to feel the same level of wellbeing they get from taking part in the activity.

Using the principles of this methodology, we have created £23.5m of social value from the £7m we invested in the year to help us achieve our key outcomes.

^[1] April 2017 to March 2018

^[2] Using the Housing Association’s Charitable Trust (HACT) Wellbeing Valuation described in Notes to editor