Social value strategy guidance

The Salford Local Plan: Development Management Policies and Designations (SLP:DMP) was adopted by Salford City Council on 18 January 2023. Policy F2 (Social value and inclusion) of the plan requires that all major developments submit a social value strategy at the planning application stage.

It is recognised that this is a new requirement for development in Salford, and so some guidance been prepared to provide further information on this. The guidance explains:

• What social value is
• Why social value is important in Salford
• How to prepare a social value strategy and what this should include
• The actions and activities that can be taken to maximise social value within development

In developing a social value strategy, it is important to understand local needs and priorities, so that appropriate social value actions and activities can be identified to help address these needs. To assist understanding needs within individual parts of the city and Salford as a whole, the guidance includes an area insights section, which provides a summary of some key data sets.

Alongside the main guidance document, some additional resources have been published to assist in preparing social value strategies: 

• Details of programmes, contacts and initiatives in Salford that can support the delivery of social value strategies (appendix 1)
• Policy requirements in the SLP:DMP that will support social inclusion when met by developments (appendix 2)
• Validation checklist template: To be completed and submitted at the planning application stage (appendix 3)
• Social value strategy template: This can be used in producing a social value strategy (the use of this template is optional) (appendix 4)
• Social value measures spreadsheet: This provides more detailed guidance on each of the social value measures.
• Local needs analysis: This supplements the area insights summary in the main guidance document and provides a more detailed report that brings together data various data sets to assist in understanding local needs.

The guidance and all of these documents are available to download at the foot of this page.

Social impact guides

In 2025, the council published social impact guides for the following areas of the city:   

• Eccles
• Pendleton 
• Swinton

These guides have been developed with local community partners and provide a useful resource in developing social value strategies. They provide additional information on local needs, priorities and initiatives within these areas and identify practical opportunities to deliver social value. 

This page was last updated on 2 December 2025