WWL4.2
Improved Neighbourhood Environment
Where we live
- Neighbourhood
Improved Neighbourhood Environment
Where people reside significantly influences their overall well-being and quality of life. Improving the neighbourhood environment refers to enhancing the physical, social, and cultural aspects of a local area to create a more pleasant and supportive living space for residents. This value focuses on improving physical neighbourhood environment.
Key Value
A monetised social value of £300
Monetised social value of an improvement of all local environmental factors per person per year.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) commissioned a research study in 2013 to evaluate the importance and value of various local environmental factors. The study aimed to assess the importance and value of various local environmental factors.
The research conducted a survey involving 561 members of the public to evaluate the significance of various attributes related to the local environment. Participants provided insights on the current state of local environmental factors and expressed their willingness to pay for improvements in each of these areas.
The table below shows the result of this study. Second column indicates the values that an individual would be willing to pay in additional council tax per person per month to improve that factor by one unit on a ten-point scale from worst to best. These estimates were then converted into yearly values, considering inflation adjustments since the study was conducted in 2013.
| The local environmental factors | Willingness to pay for an improvement per person | ||
| Per month in 2013 prices | Per year in 2013 prices | Per year in 2023 prices | |
| Litter | £3.95 | £47.4 | £62 |
| Fly-tipping | £3.71 | £44.52 | £58 |
| Trees | £2.33 | £27.96 | £36 |
| Chewing Gum | £2.17 | £26.04 | £34 |
| Odour | £2.33 | £27.96 | £36 |
| Dog Fouling | £1.89 | £22.68 | £30 |
| Quiet Areas | £1.37 | £16.44 | £21 |
| Light Pollution | £0.63 | £7.56 | £10 |
| Graffiti | £0.56 | £6.72 | £9 |
| Light Intrusion | £0.34 | £4.08 | £5 |
| Total | £302 | ||
Headline value: We have taken the sum of the value for each of the local environmental factors which is rounded to £300 per person per year.
Local Needs Analysis Data Source
Before using this MeasureUp value, we encourage you to assess the local need in relation to the activity or outcome.
Here is the most useful initial data source for assessing local need in relation to this value.
To assess local needs related to the value WWL4.2 ‘Improved neighbourhood environment’, you can use data from the Community Life Survey (2023–24) that measures perceptions of the quality of the local living environment. Key indicators include: Satisfaction with the local area as a place to live and Satisfaction with green and natural spaces in the local area.
Both indicators are available at the local authority level and updated annually. They provide insights into residents’ overall satisfaction with their environment and the quality of green spaces, which are key factors influencing wellbeing and community engagement.
If you’re just starting out, start with Bronze first. The result of a Bronze measurement is just an estimate, but requires the least effort; whereas Silver, Gold and Gold+ give more accurate results but require more effort.
Each level has an effort to accuracy indicator, choose the one that’s right for you.
Bronze
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Multiply the number of the residents you expect to improve the local environment by £300.
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Consider realistically what factors you will be able to improve. Therefore, you can calculate a more accurate value of the improved neighborhood environment.
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Measure actual amounts of difference that improved neighbourhood environment makes to people’s lives.
Gold+
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At the Gold+ level, you are building on your Gold value calculation by assessing the value against the counterfactual, or ‘what would have happened anyway’.
| Value Type: | Outcome |
What's this?
This is the type of value. Some values are outcomes, which means many different interventions might lead to them, others are specific interventions that have a set value due to a mix of outcomes of varying amounts they may create. |
|---|---|---|
| UN SDG Categories: |
|
What's this?
|
| 2020 Social Value Models: |
|
What's this?
|
| 2025 Social Value Models: |
|
What's this?
PPN 06/20 was superseded by PPN 002 Taking account of social value in the award of contracts, published in February 2025 in line with the Royal assent of the Procurement Act 2023. This PPN outlined the requirement to use the new 2025 Central Government Social Value Model. The Model applies to all Central Government procurements commencing on or after 1 October 2025 under the Procurement Act 2023. Out of scope procurements can choose to apply the model but are not required to do so. The updated model is structured around 5 government missions and 8 outcomes, with 17 Model Award Criteria, and a mandatory minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation score assigned to social value. |
Evidence
Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.
We recommend seeking consent from one or more participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.
Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music, etc from creative interventions) can add more colour, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.
In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.
Feedback
Measure Up is an open, collaborative and transparent. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our pragmatic, recommended approach to measuring and valuing social value, including wellbeing, economic, and fiscal impact, and effects on our environment, please get in touch so we can share and discuss this at our next Advisory Group meeting.
More help
We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.
If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having.
