Thursday 17th September 2026
When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s hard to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp.
It might seem an odd way to begin, but this old idiom came to mind when absorbing the latest procurement reforms.
On 6 August, the Cabinet Office published a new Procurement Policy Note on the Social Value Model. The guidance significantly simplifies social value requirements for businesses competing for Whitehall contracts, placing greater emphasis on job creation, skills development and economic opportunity. It will apply to procurements commenced from 1st January next year.
The timing is particularly interesting because it follows closely behind the introduction of the Public Interest Test. Together, these developments point towards a common theme: greater clarity about what public procurement is actually trying to achieve.
For years, businesses bidding for public sector contracts have been asked to deliver an ever-expanding list of social outcomes. Good jobs. Skills. Net zero. Vibrant high streets. Health improvements. Community cohesion. Support for vulnerable groups.
These are all worthwhile objectives. But as the list has grown, so too has the machinery required to measure, evidence and report against it.
The Government’s reforms suggest a different approach. By focusing more clearly on jobs, skills and economic opportunity, ministers are signalling a smaller number of priorities and a stronger emphasis on outcomes. That clarity should be welcomed.
One of the great strengths of the private sector is its ability to respond when government is clear about its objectives. Businesses are remarkably good at delivering results when expectations are defined, the rules of the game understood and success can be measured.
Whether it is housing delivery, apprenticeship creation or investment in local communities, organisations can mobilise quickly when they understand what is being asked of them.
The challenge comes when public policy tries to achieve everything at once.
Too often, procurement drifts towards a world where organisations spend increasing amounts of time evidencing social value rather than creating it. Tender submissions become longer. Reporting frameworks become more complex. Consultants and compliance teams multiply. Before long, organisations find themselves wrestling with alligators while losing sight of the swamp they were supposed to drain.
That is not a criticism of accountability. Public money should absolutely deliver public benefit. Taxpayers have every right to expect organisations winning public contracts to contribute positively to society.
But there is an important distinction between proving social value and creating it.
If suppliers are required to devote disproportionate amounts of time to reporting, evidence gathering and increasingly detailed compliance exercises, resources are inevitably diverted from frontline delivery. The danger is a system that becomes easier to game and harder to navigate, particularly for smaller suppliers with fewer administrative resources. Or, to borrow another well-known analogy, weighing the pig more often does not make it any fatter.
The real test of any social value framework is not how much activity it records, but whether it improves outcomes in the communities it is intended to serve. The Public Interest Test reflects a similar principle. The question is not just whether a process has been followed correctly, but whether public services are being delivered in the way that creates the greatest overall public value.
The Government’s reforms present an opportunity to avoid that trap. A simpler framework focused on a smaller number of outcomes could actually strengthen social value rather than weaken it. Fewer common objectives creates greater scaling potential, as well as opportunities for collaboration across multiple suppliers and contracts.
The test for the new Social Value Model will not be whether it generates more reporting. It will be whether it creates more jobs, more opportunities and better outcomes for people. And if that happens, we may finally stop wrestling with alligators and obsessively weighing the pig, and get back to the business of draining the swamp.
Claire Kober
Managing Director – Homes, Pinnacle Group
This article was originally featured in Property Week, on 9th September 2026.