What is Community Wealth Building (CWB)?
CWB is an approach to economic development focused on five pillars of activity:
- Spending: Maximising community and business benefits through procurement and commissioning, developing good enterprises, Fair Work and shorter supply chains.
- Workforce: Increasing Fair Work and developing local labour markets that support the prosperity and wellbeing of communities.
- Land and Property: Growing social, ecological, financial and economic value that local communities gain from land and property assets.
- Inclusive Ownership: Developing more local and inclusive enterprises which generate community wealth, including social enterprises, employee-owned firms and cooperatives.
- Finance: Ensuring that flows of investment and financial institutions work for local people, communities and businesses.
CWB seeks to use the economic levers available to ‘anchor organisations’ such as local authorities, health and social care bodies, further and higher education institutions and enterprise agencies, to better support their local and regional economies.
The CWB approach has already proved successful internationally. The experience in Cleveland, Ohio and in Preston, UK, of re-directing wealth back into the local economy and placing control and benefits into the hands of local people, has inspired the current Scottish Government consultation.
Current CWB activity
The Scottish Government has been working with local authorities and other partners to build capacity to help drive forward the implementation of CWB at the local and regional level, including supporting five CWB pilot areas (Clackmannanshire, Fife, Glasgow City Region, South of Scotland and the Western Isles) and £3 million investment in CWB in Ayrshire through the Ayrshire Growth Deal which builds on the pioneering work of North Ayrshire Council.
Current consultation and FSB position
The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2021-22 set out a commitment to take forward a Community Wealth Building Bill in this Parliament. It was also included as part of the Bute House Agreement between the SNP and the Green Party.
FSB Scotland is a member of the Community Wealth Building Bill Steering Group and has worked with the Minister leading the consultation (Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth, Tom Arthur MSP), members, and representatives from the public and third sectors to help shape the current consultation. In August 2022, FSB Scotland hosted the Minister for a roundtable discussion with members on some of the current challenges facing them and how these might be addressed by CWB legislation.
FSB Scotland has consistently made the case that anchor organisations like local authorities must spend more with small businesses, and particularly micro businesses, if CWB is to be realised. In our 2022 local elections manifesto, we called on government to set ambitious targets to increase procurement spend with smaller local firms by 2% every year to deliver an additional £140m for the economy.
We need to define what we mean by 'buy local' - spend in Scotland overall doesn’t necessarily benefit on a town level. Buying 100% local will never be possible, however it’s important to know what is available/possible in a local economy in terms of supply.
If we are serious about meaningfully building community wealth, we need a plan that includes statutory targets and reporting cycles. While any overarching legislation will be national, it will be important to develop strategies at a local level, considering the point above regarding knowing what is available/possible in a local economy.
Consultation and FSB member engagement
The Scottish Government consultation is live until 25 April 2023. In advance of this, FSB Scotland will be hosting a virtual roundtable to allow members to feed into our response on Tuesday 11 April from 2-3.30pm.
The session will explore members views on each of the pillars of CWB and we are keen to hear about current or previous experiences of working with anchor organisations at a local level, e.g. in terms of procurement.
To register for the session, please click here. For more information or any questions, please e-mail: [email protected].