Socially responsible property investment in urban regeneration: Priorities and behaviours of institutional investors in practice

This study examines the effectiveness of the investment practice known as 'Socially Responsible Property Investment' (SRPI) in the arena of urban regeneration in the UK. Funds and developers make special claims for their regeneration schemes, namely, that they deliver enhanced social benefits. This study explores: what in regeneration practice distinguishes SRPI; the actual priorities and behaviours of investors and developers in the sub-sector; what their resultant regeneration schemes are moving towards; and future implementation suggested via a Social Credit Rating scoring of SRPI regeneration schemes. The paper reveals that SRPI is far from uniform, with a spectrum of investors and developers adopting differing priorities driven by their own investment targets. The study identifies SRPI as playing an exemplary role in urban regeneration, while finding significant barriers to widening its more mainstream application.