Community Wealth Building (Takki Sulaiman, Fergus Murray and Morag Goodfellow)
Argyll and Bute Council · 6 October 2022
Back to Argyll and Bute Community Planning Partnership - Management Committee — 6 October 2022 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 - tabled update 1.0 Purpose The purpose of this tabled report is to provide the CPP Management Committee with an update of some of the work contributing to the development of Community Wealth Building approaches in Argyll and Bute. 2.0 Recommendations The CPP Management Committee are asked to: Discuss the approach outlined in the report. Consider endorsing the approach contained in the report, or Recommend alternative approaches. 3.0 Background and context 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 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 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 associations2. 1 https://cles.org.uk/what-is-community-wealth-building/the-principles-of-community-wealth-building/ 2 https://cles.org.uk/what-is-community-wealth-building/what-is-an-anchor-institution/ Management Committee Date: 6 October 2022
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In addition, conversations have been had with interested community organisations via the Argyll and Bute Social Enterprise Network. It is also anticipated that the Scottish Government will publish a Community Wealth Building Bill in the current parliamentary year3. Over the past year, a small coalition of local partners on behalf of the CPP have been exploring what Community Wealth Building might mean for Argyll and Bute and how we can integrate this approach with existing best practice, strategies and our assets as a geographical entity. There are many linkages with existing strategies and approaches including the pursuit of a Wellbeing Economy. 4.0 Detail 4.1 Engagement activity Community Wealth Building formed part of the agenda for two meetings of Argyll and Bute’s Social Enterprise Network which took place in November 2021 and June 2022. The June 2022 meeting, hosted at the Argyll and Bute TSI’s Inveraray Hub, was virtually attended by Tom Arthur MSP, Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth and Neil McInroy formerly of CLES and the Democracy Collaborative and who is now advising the Scottish Government on CWB. They were particularly interested on the implications of CWB for a rural economy. 4.2 Opportunities to explore There are three high level opportunities to explore for CPP members arising out of the local engagement activity and discussions. The first is the idea of developing an intermediary organisation to develop a virtual food market hub. The issue being that the proliferation of small local food producers lack the scale needed to supply local anchor institutions. A social enterprise that hosted a virtual food market could provide the necessary infrastructure and act as an intermediary to supply local public institutions. Thus, developing the local economy and supply chain and ensuring profits are recycled into the local area. The second idea arises out of increasing levels of energy insecurity and to explore how Argyll and Bute might retain some of the profits, and perhaps capacity, from energy generation in our localities through the development of small-scale energy generation schemes, using existing local best practice as drivers of change. To explore these opportunities, it is proposed to add these two to the brief for the proposed mapping and next steps research exercise referenced at 4.3 below. 3 https://www.inclusivegrowth.scot/our-work/community-wealth-building-and-programme-for-government- 2020-21/
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The third opportunity is the idea that the principles of Community Wealth Building should be reflected into existing and new practice, strategies, plans and business cases for all anchor institutions and CPP members. For instance, the Rural Growth Deal is at the business case development stage and could include cross referencing opportunities with CWB principles at the design stage. Indeed, the Argyll and Bute Integration Joint Board in its new strategic plan makes a direct reference to CWB4 which is an excellent starting point. 4.3 Mapping Exercise and next steps Given the scale of local activity and the Scottish Government’s intent that CWB should reflect local needs and priorities it makes sense to map existing activity, procurement, strategies, action plans and good practice. This will help drive an Argyll and Bute approach to CWB and ensure we maximise opportunities arising out of our unique assets. To this end it is proposed that an independent report is commissioned as no partner has capacity to conduct this exercise. The Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface, with its remit to promote Social Enterprise, would be happy to make a significant financial contribution to this report and is willing to manage the commissioning process. Development of the research brief will be collaborative, and partners will also be asked to make a financial contribution to move this piece of work forward and aid our preparations in advance of legislation. It is proposed that the loose group of partners leading on exploring CWB for the CPP be identified as a CWB Learning and Action Group. Finally, it is also proposed to bring to the next CPP meeting a statement of intent that all anchor institutions would be asked to consider signing. This is a similar process to that followed in other localities including the Edinburgh Partnership5. 5.0 Conclusions 1. We propose commissioning a report which maps current best practice in Argyll and Bute, similar and interconnected initiatives and strategies, opportunities unique to Argyll and Bute and next steps for action. 2. The report will be based upon a shared brief which will be developed by interested CPP partners. 3. The TSI, subject to board approval in October 2022, will contribute a significant share of the report’s costs but contributions from anchor institutions will be sought. 4 https://www.nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk/OurAreas/ArgyllandBute/PublishingImages/Argyll%20And%20Bute %20-%20Joint%20Strategic%20Plan%20-%2015-06-2022.pdf page 3 5 https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/documents/s47013/EVOC%20Edinburgh%20Partnership%20Board %20CWB%20Report%20Mar%2022.pdf
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6.0 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 2023 Consultations, Previous considerations Resources None identified as yet Prevention 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 For more information, please contact: Takki Sulaiman, Chief Executive, Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface takkisulaiman@argylltsi.org.uk