Social value is key for any tender submission, with PPN 002 mandating a minimum weighting for social value of 10% of the total scores available[1]
It ensures tenderers consider and commit to economic, social and environmental activities which will benefit the local area within their bid submission. The Rail Social Value Tool (RSVT), developed in 2022 by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and Loop, is a digital platform made to quantify social value in rail.
The RSVT helps monitor, measure, and evaluate the social value of projects and operations[2]. Built collaboratively with input from the Department for Transport and Network Rail, it supports better investment decision-making for organisations of all sizes working for or bidding into the rail sector. This makes it a key tool to support EiB’s clients to develop winning social value solutions.
The RSVT allows businesses to forecast, track, and analyse the societal impact of their social value solutions. It calculates the net social, economic, and fiscal outcomes of initiatives, ensuring a focus on welfare and wellbeing. The tool includes 529 social indicators, 258 of which have monetised values. Of these, 238 are based on principles from the OECD and the UK Treasury’s Green Book. Network Rail supply chain partners can use the RSVT free of charge to report on frameworks and contracts.
Why do we need to quantify social value impact?
Rail is a sustainable mode of transport, but it is also highly capital intensive, and achieving Net Zero will require even more investment. Electrification, freight promotion, and emissions-reducing technologies are vital, but it is also important to understand their societal impacts. Quantifying social impact is vital for informing policymakers, attracting skilled workers, and targeting investments to maximise societal benefits. While inputs like job creation and carbon reduction are measurable, outputs such as community benefits are harder to value.
Using the RSVT allows our clients to clearly demonstrate added value beyond just cost savings. It provides clarity for stakeholders and helps communicate rail’s social contributions.
What does the RSVT measure?
The RSVT categorises its 538 indicators into 12 social impact areas, including employment, charity work, environment and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Network Rail prioritises 140 of these indicators, publishing monetised values on its internal RSVT Hub. The RSVT calculates monetary social value, social return on investment, gross value added, and Local Multiplier 3 measures of local impact. It aligns data with UN Sustainable Development Goals, the UK Government’s four capitals framework, and themes from PPN06/20. The RSVT also allows sub-contractors to add their own data, giving clients the full picture of the social value being created across their supply chain.
Why should we use the RSVT?
Tracking and quantifying all these indicators presents a challenge, especially for small and medium enterprises. The RSVT streamlines social value reporting by consolidating these metrics into a single source of truth, accessible via a live dashboard. This was updated to align with the Sustainable Rail Blueprint framework in April 2025[3], providing a clear view of social value metrics and consistency for tracking impact across the sector. During the end-to-end bid process, the RSVT can support tenderers forecast their impact, developing a compelling offering which clearly sets out social value commitments and expected outcomes.
- Producing social value projections for proposed social value initiatives
- Providing Network Rail with a holistic view of their added value
- Using social value projections to inform commercial decisions in the bid process.
- Tracking and reporting the delivery of themes within the UK Government Social Value Model
- Measuring the extent to which they are delivering their social value commitments, as outlined in tender responses
- Reporting progress to planning authorities and funders.
- Calculating the social return on investment of initiatives, such as volunteer leave policies
- Assessing whether social value projections have been met post-implementation.
How can EiB help?
The RSVT is a powerful tool for our rail industry clients. It gives commissioning clients such as Network Rail confidence in the monetary value of their proposals and ensures investments deliver maximum societal benefits. As a central social value platform, it enables transparency and collaboration between end clients, tier one contractors, and SMEs, and creates a single source of truth for social value investment and outcomes. This helps to foster sustainable, impactful, and data-led investment.
EiB have supported our clients to secure over £20bn of work in the rail sector over the last eight years. Our sector and solution experts draw on a wealth of industry knowledge to develop, challenge, and validate client social value offerings. Using the RSVT, we help clients demonstrate the value they can bring not just to the railway, but to the people and communities it serves.
Learn more about the RSVT- [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-002-taking-account-of-social-value-in-the-award-of-contracts/ppn-002-guide-to-using-the-social-value-model-html
- [2] https://www.rssb.co.uk/sustainability/maximising-social-value/the-rail-social-value-tool
- [3] https://www.globalrailwayreview.com/news/201210/loop-and-rssb-launch-dashboard-to-track-social-value-against-sustainable-rail-blueprint-goals/