Community Wealth Building in Argyll and Bute - a Framework for Action
Argyll and Bute Council · 7 May 2024
Back to Helensburgh and Lomond Area Community Planning Group — 7 May 2024 and its agenda
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Argyll and Bute Community Planning Partnership Helensburgh and Lomond Area Community Planning Group 7th May 2024 Community Wealth Building in Argyll and Bute – a framework for action Summary Community Wealth Building is an established methodology, adopted by the Scottish Government and soon to be enshrined in law, and which is intended to address the inequalities in our communities by ensuring wealth generated locally is used locally and not extracted. The report identifies numerous local good practice examples, examines them for replicability as well as identifying a framework for action and potential models of opportunity in community owned energy generation and employee ownership models. 1. Purpose The purpose of this report is for the ACPG to note that the CPP Management Committee formally received the Community Wealth Building report commissioned in 2023 at its meeting of 10th April 2024. This follows on from the January 2024 report ‘A Framework for Action’ which afforded the Management Committee the opportunity to debate and discuss the initial report recommendations. The CPP Management Committee requested that the final report and the models of opportunity be sent to ACPGs for feedback and comment and in particular seek comment on questions of implementation and priority actions. 2. Recommendations 2.1 Note that a steering group of CPP partners oversaw the delivery and production of the two reports at Appendix 1 and 2; 2.2 The ACPG is asked to comment on implementation and priority actions within the final report Community Wealth Building in Argyll and Bute: A framework for action (Appendix 1); 2.3 The ACPG is asked to comment on the implementation and priority actions within the two ‘Models of Opportunity’ (Appendix 2). 3. Background
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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 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. 4. 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. Initial discussions have also been held between CPP partners about the importance of the CWB pillars and the specific Argyll and Bute 1 https://cles.org.uk/what-is-community-wealth-building/the-principles-of-community-wealth-building/ 2 https://consult.gov.scot/economic-development/community-wealth-building-consultation/
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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. 5. Conclusions There are many existing best practice examples in Argyll and Bute that use Community Wealth Building methods to support and improve our communities by ensuring wealth generated in Argyll and Bute benefits local communities and is not extracted. The report identifies significant opportunities to increase the applicability of the methodology for wider community benefit. It does however require considerable engagement amongst all partners, communities and anchor institutions to identify key areas for priority action. 6. LOIP Outcomes The report relates to all three of the new LOIP 2024-2034 priority areas of Housing, Transport and Community Wellbeing. For further information please contact: Takki Sulaiman CEO Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface takkisulaiman@argylltsi.org.uk