4 - Renfrewshire Council Community Benefits (Community Wealth Building) - AM reviewed
Renfrewshire Council · 26 August 2025
Back to Economy and Regeneration Policy Board — 26 August 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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___________________________________________________________________ To: Economy and Regeneration Policy Board On: 26 August 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Chief Executive ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Renfrewshire Council Community Benefits (Community Wealth Building) 1. Summary 1.1 This report provides a background to the Council’s community benefits programme and summarises current economic development activity supporting the delivery of community added value from Council contracted spend. 1.2 This paper sets out how community benefits link to the Council’s Community Wealth Building [CWB] agenda for Renfrewshire and highlights some of the opportunities that community benefits can create for local organisations, people and places to thrive and prosper because of the added value created. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 Board members are asked to: • Note the current activity undertaken to maximise community added value for local people, communities and organisations from the Council’s community benefits programme. • Note that further updates on the Council’s community benefits programme will be reported to a future board. ___________________________________________________________________
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3. Background 3.1 Community benefits are the method by which local communities and good causes can receive additional value from public spending and provides a means of achieving sustainability in public contracts. Renfrewshire Council mandates community benefits on regulated procurements above the threshold of £50k and has a forum of local delivery partners, led by the Economic Development Team, in place to help suppliers to meet their community benefit requirements. 3.2 The obligation to include community benefits in our procurement process comes from legal requirements from the Sustainable Procurement Duty within the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. 3.3 Renfrewshire Council fully supports this method of achieving sustainability in contracts and has identified one of its key objectives to be the exploring of ‘all opportunities to use its procurement activities to promote its wider policy objectives, including social, economic and environmental objectives’ in its Procurement Strategy. 3.4 Over the past few years, officers from the Economic Development and Procurement teams have worked closely together to strategically and intentionally promote progressive procurement of goods and services, as a means through which greater social, economic and environmental benefits can be achieved for our local people, businesses and communities as part of the Council’s wider Community Wealth Building agenda. 3.5 In response to the introduction of the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill (March 2025) which sets out the ‘use of public procurement to facilitate or support such generation, circulation and retention of wealth to local communities’ as a key measure, it is vital the Council uses its purchasing power as a critical lever to deliver added economic, social, and environmental value through its community benefits programme. ___________________________________________________________________ 4. Current Economic Development Activity 4.1 The community benefits forum, is a key lever for the delivery of benefits from existing contracts. The forum comprises of core delivery partners from the Council’s Invest in Renfrewshire, Education and Business Gateway services as well as Engage Renfrewshire. 4.2 As chair of the forum, the CWB Coordinator has grown the forum membership to include representation from wider council services such as HSCP, Housing, ICT and Connected Communities ensuring that benefits are focused on supporting the right people in the right places across Renfrewshire and, most importantly, that benefits reach those most in need. 4.3 The forum’s remit has also been extended to build a range of social, economic, or environmental conditions into the delivery of Council contracts from pre-
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tender stage to address local priorities and to ensure that the Council focuses on maximising the benefits of large infrastructure projects on localities. Operational delivery sub-groups formed of suppliers, sub-contractors, delivery partners and coordinated by the CWB Coordinator have been formed to ensure delivery is managed across the life of the contract. 4.4 To help direct community benefits to where they make the most impact, relevant officers are seeking to input at pre-tender stage to examine where we think benefits are required and are achievable under the contract. This work is essential in ensuring benefits are relevant to the social and economic conditions of our localities and are deliverable for suppliers under the terms of the contract. 4.5 Improved supplier guidance and greater input from delivery partners at a much earlier stage has led to a more meaningful approach to understanding the needs of priority groups. This shifted focus from community benefits as a tick box for suppliers to a means of delivering good quality engagements that have a real impact for communities. 4.6 In the past there were many community benefits offered by suppliers, however these were tracked manually and, therefore, challenging to quantify. As a result, it was difficult to measure and report on what local benefit was delivered and how much impact this had on improving outcomes for local people. As such it presented a huge opportunity lost. 4.7 In order to strengthen tracking and monitoring of community benefits, Economic Development have purchased the Cenefits system for use across the Council. Cenefits enables the Council to measure whether and how well these benefits are being achieved, and report on value added to local people, organisations and communities. Cenefits is now fully embedded in the community benefits process allowing tighter management and monitoring of the suppliers’ community benefit obligations and providing fully reportable quantative and qualitative information on outcomes achieved. 4.8 To support the implementation of the system and to meet reporting requirements, Economic Development part funded a role within the Procurement team to strengthen ongoing work. As part of our joint approach to improving communication with suppliers and to add energy and momentum to the community benefits delivery process, Economic Development and Procurement have worked together to deliver community benefits webinar sessions in partnership with the Supplier Development Programme and Cenefits. These sessions have been very well attended and have received positive feedback from our supply chain. In addition, the CWB Coordinator attends several HSCP, communities and other strategic planning forums to raise awareness of the Council’s community benefits work. ___________________________________________________________________ 5. Key community benefits outcomes delivered in FY24/25 5.1 As a result of some of the significant changes brought in, this is the first year that we have been able to report on the impact of community benefits, with FY 2024/25 producing the first fully reportable activity.
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5.2 The figures in this report represent financial year 2024/25, taken from the period of 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025. As community benefits are delivered on a rolling programme these figures reflect a single point in time and may change subject to reporting period and reporting criteria. 5.3 In FY24/25, 179 benefits were realised across 64 Council contracts delivering added value and improving outcomes in real terms for Renfrewshire communities: 5.4 Figures shown represent benefits fully delivered during 2024-25. Some community benefit outcomes can take a period of years to complete and/ or may have been committed on projects which span across several years, therefore, may not be included in this period. 5.5 Appendix A to this report provides a range of case studies which illustrate some of the positive outcomes that can be realised for local people, communities and businesses from each type of community benefit noted in the figures above. 5.6 Appendix B offers a case study for the Paisley Grammar Community Campus and illustrates the scope, range and scalability of the community benefits offer
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on a large capital project delivered over a period of several years. In this case, the contractors in the supply chain are involved in leaving a positive legacy through their community benefit commitments across the life on the contract and beyond. ___________________________________________________________________ 6. Next Steps 6.1 Further work is being undertaken by the community benefits forum to identify opportunities to bring in to scope some contracts and frameworks such as ICT and Early Years & Childcare where community benefits have not previously been sought. 6.2 The close relationship between Economic Development and Procurement teams in the Council has fostered joint responsibility for the delivery of community added value. This work will be strengthened by implementing a robust end to end process for the management of the community benefits programme going forward. 6.3 The Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill compels the Council to take on more responsibility for the strategic planning of the economic and social impact of contracted spend and other Council activity which generates community added value. In addition, recent changes to the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) seeks to encourage, promote and facilitate the maximisation of added social value in local government decision making. The key policies influencing this agenda are Policies 11C (Energy) and policy 25 (CWB), both have a direct reference to added value in development proposals with reference to the community wealth building agenda. 6.4 To ensure that we maximise economic, social and community added value across all areas of Council activity and spend, the Economic Development team are exploring a range of opportunities and approaches to harness significant additional benefits for the local area. These include benefits to be sought from renewable energy projects, planning applications, benefits accrued through Scotland Excel frameworks and regionally funded projects, along with the potential opportunity to pilot delivery of Scottish Government (procurement) benefits. 6.5 Further reports on community benefits, as part of the Council’s approach to community wealth building, will be brought back to Board at a future date. ___________________________________________________________________ Implications of the Report 1. Financial – There are no implications to identify at present other than the community benefits highlighted in this report 2. HR & Organisational Development – There are no implications
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3. Community/Council Planning – CWB is a key feature of the current Council Plan, Procurement Strategy and Community Learning and Development Plan. 4. Legal- There are no immediate implications however, going forward new community wealth building legislation is likely to be published in Scotland. 5. Property/Assets- There are no new implications however, land and assets are a key theme of CWB with a particular focus on community asset transfer and the inclusion of a CWB provision within the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) published in 2024. 6. Information Technology – There are no implications 7. Equality & Human Rights- There are no implications 8. Health & Safety- There are no implications 9. Procurement - There are no new implications however, procurement and the tracking of the public pound and local spend are a key focus of the spending pillar of CWB. 10. Risk - There are no implications 11. Privacy Impact - There are no implications 12. Climate Risk -There are no implications 13. Children’s Rights - There are no implications 14. COSLA Policy Position- COSLA strongly supports the concept of community wealth building (CWB), advocating for its implementation across Scotland through legislation and collaborative efforts with local authorities, businesses, third sector organisations, and communities to ensure wealth generated within communities is redistributed and benefits local residents; essentially seeing local government as a key "anchor institution" to drive CWB initiatives. _________________________________________________________ List of Background Papers - None ___________________________________________________________________ Chief Executive’s MD 25 July 2025 Author: Morag Doig, Community Wealth Building Coordinator, Renfrewshire Council Email: morag.doig@renfrewshire.gov.uk
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Appendix A: Community Benefit Case Studies New Entrant Job Created Luke was taken on as a Window Cleaning Technician by Caledonian Maintenance Services Limited as part of their Community Benefit requirement. He was taken on full time at a minimum of 30 hours per week. Prior to this, Luke had been unemployed for 4 years, though he was a caring for elderly relatives as a full-time carer. Since joining the team, he has completed a number of training courses including CSCS, IPAF, First Aid etc and in just the first 2 months of his employment he also progressed to Team Leader. Community Engagement: Funding Opportunity For their Community Benefit Robertson-Acom Limited, donated £5000 to a local charity called 'Lisa's Gift'. This charity is run on a completely voluntary basis with every penny raised going to those who need it most. The charity offers financial assistance to students attending Renfrewshire schools, who may require support, to allow them to take part in the full range of school based and extra-curricular activities. For example, the money donated was used to fund breakfast clubs, warm winter clothing, pe kits, trips home and abroad, emergency food parcels and fuel for families. Graduate Job As part of the new Paisley Grammar Community Campus build, local Gallowhill resident Sophie was taken on in a permanent position as a ‘Communities and Social Impact Trainee’. This was to fulfil supplier, Morrison Construction Ltd Community Benefit to deliver a ‘New Graduate Job’. Sophie has been supported to complete a 4-year graduate apprenticeship in business management using the paisley grammar project as a learning tool to support her through university. Now over a year on Sophie continue to thrive and is enjoying her role. Local Supply Chain Development Opportunities As part of their Community Benefits requirements John McGeady Ltd provided 4 subcontracting opportunities for 4 Renfrewshire based SME’s. ➢ SME - MTEC Construction ➢ Social Enterprise - Scotland's Bravest ➢ SME – WRC Recycling 1. SME - CMC Electrical (Scotland) Ltd.
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Appendix B: New Paisley Grammar School Community Benefits Paisley Grammar School Build Community Benefits (across all 6 contracts) Total Number of Benefits to be delivered 2022-2027 180 Benefit Type Total benefits committed 2022-27 (180) New Entrant Jobs Created 14 Graduate Jobs Created 8 Modern Apprenticeships 4 Work Experience Placements 51 Workplace Visits and Career Events 39 Upskilling of the Workforce 16 Local Supply Chain Development Opportunities 19 Community Engagement: Funding Opportunities 18 Community Engagements (donation of time, expertise, materials and equipment) 11