Last reviewed: 23 June 2026
The plain-English definition
A community benefit is a measurable social outcome a public body secures when it buys goods, works or services — something that improves life for local communities in addition to the thing being bought. Build a school, and the construction contract might also deliver apprenticeships, work placements and spend with local small businesses. Those extras are the community benefits.
What makes the Welsh picture distinctive is the framing. Wales situates community benefits within socially responsible procurement and the well-being goals, rather than treating them only as standalone “community benefit requirements” written into a contract. The deliverables are similar; the framework around them is Welsh.
Different from Scotland. Scotland uses a contractual model of “community benefit requirements.” Wales frames the same idea through socially responsible procurement and the well-being goals. If you work across both, the language and the legal basis genuinely differ — see the landscape.
A Welsh heritage
Wales did not start from scratch. The Welsh Government and Value Wales have a longstanding community benefits policy and measurement approach, which now sits within socially responsible procurement. The vocabulary has evolved, so it is worth confirming the current Welsh Government guidance and present-day terminology rather than relying on older toolkits.
The common types of community benefit
These are the outcomes that come up most often. The examples are illustrative, not real contracts.
- Recruitment & employment
- Jobs for local or under-represented people — for example, a commitment to recruit a number of new employees from the area a contract serves.
- Training & apprenticeships
- Apprenticeship starts, qualifications and work placements delivered through the life of a contract.
- Fair work
- Commitments to fair pay, security and voice at work — central to the Welsh model since the “A Prosperous Wales” goal was amended to reference fair work.
- Local supply-chain opportunities
- Opening subcontracting and supply opportunities to local small and medium-sized businesses and social enterprises.
- Well-being outcomes
- Wider contributions to community well-being — from supporting local groups to environmental improvements — measured against the well-being goals.
How this relates to “social value”
You will also hear the term social value. The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 applies in England and Wales and creates a duty to consider well-being in procurement. In Wales, that sits alongside the stronger, duty-based model in the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023, which goes beyond “consider” to place active socially responsible procurement duties on public bodies and anchor them to the well-being goals.
Where the facts come from
This page draws on Welsh and UK legislation and Welsh Government guidance. See the resources page for the primary sources, or read the full map on the landscape.
