Community Wealth Building (Takki Sulaiman / Charlie Murphy)
Argyll and Bute Council · 12 January 2024
Back to Argyll and Bute Community Planning Partnership - Management Committee — 12 January 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Community Wealth Building report - initial recommendations 1.0 Purpose The purpose of this report is to provide the CPP Management Committee with an opportunity to discuss the initial Community Wealth Building report recommendations. 2.0 Recommendations The CPP Management Committee are asked to: • Note and discuss the initial Community Wealth Building recommendations attached at Appendix 1: A framework for action; • Note that work is ongoing on completing the full report and the associated two Business Cases; • Agree that a working group of CPP partners continue to work with CLES to finalise the full report for presentation at the next CPP meeting; • To consider any actions required to develop the Argyll and Bute CPP approach to Community Wealth Building. 3.0 Background and context 3.1 The five pillars of CWB The five principles of Community Wealth Building have been developed by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies1 over a number of decades through work with anchor institutions across the UK and the World. These are:- • Plural ownership of the economy. • Making financial power work for local places. • Fair employment and just labour markets. • Progressive procurement of goods and services. • Socially productive use of land and property. Anchor institutions are identified as statutory and third sector bodies which can influence ‘economic engines’: The term is used to refer to organisations which: • Have an important presence in a place, usually through a combination of: being largescale employers, the largest purchasers of goods and services in the locality, controlling large areas of land and/or having relatively fixed 1 https://cles.org.uk/what-is-community-wealth-building/the-principles-of-community-wealth-building/ Management Committee Date: 20 December 2023
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assets. • Are tied to a particular place by their mission, histories, physical assets and local relationships. Examples include local authorities, NHS trusts, universities, trade unions, large local businesses, the combined activities of the community and voluntary sector and housing associations. The Scottish Government has published an overview of the responses received to their January 2023 consultation paper on Community Wealth Building legislation2. 3.2 Argyll and Bute CPP commissioned research The CPP at its March 2023 meeting agreed to commission research mapping existing CWB case studies in Argyll and Bute and beyond and to develop and identify local priorities for action. The report was funded by the Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface on the understanding that the report would be commissioned on behalf of the CPP partners as a whole to support partnership working and collaboration on this model. Following a competitive tender, the research contract was awarded to CLES in June 2023 and work on the five lots began in July 2023. The lots were as follows:- • Lot one – an audit of existing best practice and a mapping exercise against each of the five pillars. For instance, how are we all using land and assets, how do we procure and commission services and are we collectively applying fair work principles as employers and commissioners of services? This will include stakeholder consultation and will also inform lot three. • Lot two – identification of case studies that may be replicable across Argyll and Bute and identification of opportunities that are relevant to our locality and strategic aims as a CPP linked to our new LOIP objectives. • Lot three – development of a CWB framework for action • Lots four and five – the aim here is to develop two business cases and models for two areas of activity to propel our actions forward. Following consultation, the two business cases have been identified as ‘Building a more cooperative food and tourism economy’ and ‘Building community and shared ownership of the energy transition’. 4.0 Detail 4.1 Engagement activity A series of citizen led workshops were held around Argyll and Bute in July and August with a further online workshop in September 2023. Simultaneously a desktop document search was conducted as well as a series of in depth one to one stakeholder interviews. This research has informed the draft report and the initial recommendations, of which the latter are appended for discussion, development and outline agreement by CPP partners. 2 https://consult.gov.scot/economic-development/community-wealth-building-consultation/
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Initial discussions have also been held between CPP partners about the importance of the CWB pillars and the specific Argyll and Bute recommendations to other strategies and action plans. For instance, there is an opportunity for the forthcoming Argyll and Bute Economic Development Strategy and Action Plan to incorporate this work on Community Wealth Building and to use the five pillars as underpinning principles. 4.2 Next steps The recommendations identified by CLES following research and consultation presents a potential framework for action for CPP partners. It is proposed that the working group model adopted to steer the research is continued and CPP members are asked to identify whether the working group membership should be widened or not at this stage. Representatives from the following organisations are currently involved:- - Argyll and Bute Council - Highland and Islands Enterprise - Skills Development Scotland - Argyll and Bute HSCP - Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface It is recommended that the working group’s tasks focus on the following and report to the next CPP with a final CWB report and provide regular progress reports thereafter:- i. Finalisation of the full CWB report with CLES ii. Advise on taking forward the recommendations contained in the Framework for Action at Appendix 1. 5.0 Implications Strategic Implications Community Wealth Building has significant cross cutting implications for a wide range of strategies including the forthcoming Local Outcome Improvement Plan and the new Argyll and Bute Economic Strategy expected in 2024 Consultations, Previous considerations The report has involved stakeholder engagement sessions, interviews and a number of citizen led workshops exploring the most important CWB themes for Argyll and Bute. Resources The TSI board has funded the CWB review report and business cases. Further resource implications would need to be explored by CPP partners and it is noted that the CWB pilot areas utilized Scottish Government pilot funding. Prevention Retaining wealth generated locally and promoting fair employment are excellent methods to ensure communities are sustainable and promote community resilience. Equalities CWB has at its core fair employment, just labour markets and making financial power work for local places. This is conducive to supporting the Fairer Scotland Duty as well as Equality Act responsibilities for those with protected characteristics. Takki Sulaiman
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For more information, please contact: Takki Sulaiman, Chief Executive, Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface takkisulaiman@argylltsi.org.uk Nicola Reaney, Administrative Officer, Community Planning Nicola.Reaney@argyll-bute.gov.uk Links CWB legislation consultation response updated 26th October 2023 – https://consult.gov.scot/economic-development/community-wealth-building- consultation/ Poverty Alliance citizen’s panel on CWB October 2023 - https://www.povertyalliance.org/get-heard-scotland-community-wealth-building/ EDAS guide to CWB January 2023 - https://edas.org.uk/community-wealth-building- guide/ CLES November 2022 publication on interviews with UK local authorities re: CWB and five areas for action:- https://cles.org.uk/publications/a-light-in-the-dark/ North Ayrshire Community Planning partnership, CWB Plan http://northayrshire.community/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CWB-Powerpoint- Template-NAC-strategy-update-for-CPP-Board-Sept-2020.pdf The role of the NHS as an anchor institution – The Health Foundation https://www.health.org.uk/publications/reports/building-healthier-communities-role- of-nhs-as-anchor-institution Example CPP CWB mapping and action plan Outer Hebrides March 2021 - https://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/media/17452/S%2019B%20-%20Appendix%20- %20Community%20Wealth%20Building%20in%20the%20Outer%20Hebrides%20Acti on%20Plan.pdf