What is ‘Community Wealth Building’?

Community Wealth Building (CWB) as a term itself appeared in 2005.

The Democracy Collaborative, an American organisation, suggested that CWB:

…takes progressive elements like community land trusts, worker cooperatives, public banking, and more…connecting and scaling them to change people’s lives and the economic future of our communities…

CWB has been championed by the British economics ‘think tank’ the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) which claims that:

• CWB is a people-centred approach to local economic development
• CWB redirects wealth back into the local economy
• Places control and benefits into the hands of local people

CLES suggests that there are five core principles to Community Wealth Building:

• Progressive procurement – developing local supply chains of businesses likely to support local employment and keep wealth within communities
• Fair employment and just labour markets – Using anchor institutions to improve prospects of local people
• Shared ownership of the local economy – supporting and growing business models that are more financially generative for the local economy
• Socially ‘just’ use of land and property – developing the function and ownership of local assets held by anchor organisations, so local communities benefit from financial and social gain
• Making financial power work for local places – increase flows of investment within local economies by harnessing and recirculating the wealth that exists

The Scottish Government have stated their commitment to exploring the CWB approach:

https://www.gov.scot/policies/cities-regions/community-wealth-building/

Examples of CWB approaches can include the operation of community food shops, fuel poverty schemes, and rural enterprise networks. There is an understanding that the delivery of a CWB approach will need to all sectors to be involved where possible - public, private and third sector organisations.

In Renfrewshire many local social enterprises are already impacting on the Community Wealth Building agenda:

https://engagerenfrewshire.org/social-enterprise-directory/