Community benefits

‘Community benefits’ are the method by which local communities and good causes can receive additional social value from public spending, and are now mandatory to consider across the majority of public sector procurement – Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.

Traditionally this includes businesses committing to creating local jobs and apprenticeships, engaging with schools and employability projects, hosting work placements and using local supply chains as much as possible.

Another strand of community benefits however is also tied to benefitting local people, places and good causes. This includes volunteering, improvements to public indoor/ outdoor spaces, environmental initiatives, support for local charities and voluntary groups.

University of Edinburgh’s new Usher Institute is being constructed by McLaughlin and Harvey and will become a world leading facility for over 900 scientist, health and social care researchers and colleagues from the public, private and third sectors.

As part of community benefits, McLaughlin and Harvey understand the importance of engaging with local social enterprises in their supply chain. They have worked with Move On to utilise waster materials from their project, thus reducing the environmental impact and enabling Move On to help strengthen their business model.

They have also been proactive in engaging with local good causes above and beyond the standard frameworks to ensure that they are making a positive difference to the local areas of their projects.