Community investment is often seen as social housing’s poor relation. Undervalued, under-resourced and, more than often, under threat of cuts when budgets are tight. Those working in community investment teams often feel that their work is misunderstood or devalued.

One of the requests many community investment professionals made to us when we launched the Centre was to develop a common definition of community investment. Having a common definition of what we mean by community investment and the value it brings to social housing will help us speak more effectively and with more consistency when we discuss community investment with our colleagues, with our Boards and with our partners.

So along with community investment professionals around the UK, we have developed some descriptors about community investment, as well as some statements that you can use in response to some common questions about the value and impact of community investment.

Here you can read the primary descriptors, the secondary statements, find out how we developed them, and how you can use them.

You can also download this guide to the descriptors, as well as these images for use in Powerpoint presentations or reports. Please note, the images have been saved as a Zip file.