Frameworks for the future: new frontiers in community wealth building?

Earlier in 2025 we completed a piece of work for South of Scotland Enterprise. This fascinating and timely project involved consultations across various groups to co-create a Community Wealth Building Framework, which could be used in renewable energy developments to scale and amplify local benefits. We spoke to communities, their larger representative bodies, renewables developers and officials in the public sector. All agreed that developers should be contributing more and that we need a more consistent approach.

“the stakes are high, and we can, and must, deliver more for our people and places”

This can’t come soon enough. Communities across Scotland are increasingly frustrated at the scale of renewable development and the impact this is having on their places. These feelings are the symptom of a system where communities have, in some instances, been left out of negotiations, and ultimately do not feel they are reaping the tangible community benefits which these developments could bring for their areas. This is playing into a political environment where a push back against net zero aspirations and renewable technologies is gaining more airtime. The stakes are high, and we can, and must, deliver more for our people and places to enable us to tackle the climate emergency, support our rural economies and shift the narrative of extraction.

“natural resources can be owned, managed and shared in ways which benefit local people, local places and local economies”

Things can be done differently, however. We only have to look north to Shetland to see how their council negotiated with the oil industry to leverage a better outcome as part of the oil boom of the 1970s and 80s (although of course this did take an act of parliament). The council were able to secure financial recompense for every barrel of oil landed at Sum Voe, as well as rental income for the port itself which was used to fund social infrastructure across the islands. The legacy from this money, as well as residual funds, now forms the bulk of the Shetland Charitable Trust’s development support for island activities, as well as their reserves. And, we can see from other countries and other natural resources too, that different ways of working are possible. Natural resources can be owned, managed and shared in ways which benefit local people, local places and local economies. Our work in 2024 with the Scottish Land Commission exploring governance and mechanisms for securing value from natural resources highlights various case studies of best practice and showcases a set of guiding principles.

The UK Government has recently consulted on community benefit and shared ownership from renewables – whether this leads to substantive changes to the system we have in place, remains to be seen, however. The Scottish Government only has so much power here with the bulk of energy policy being reserved to Westminster, so being creative at a more local level, in the policy landscape we find ourselves in, is essential.

“this is a unique starting point”

And that is what organisations like SOSE are trying to achieve. Co-creating a Community Wealth Building Framework has ensured that all interested parties have had some input into its design and that the framework is deliverable. While there is more work to be done in terms of ensuring greater representation of voices and a greater sense of local ownership for this framework (and SOSE do have plans for further consultation), this is a unique starting point which can be the basis of using a  community wealth building approach to amplify the benefits renewable developments and renewables developers can have in communities and across a region.

“co-produced nature of the framework”

The framework is built around the five pillars of community wealth building and presents a range of options for developers to contribute more local benefit. These range from ensuring shared ownership opportunities are clearly presented to communities, to fair renumeration for communities participating in negotiations, and greater collaboration between renewable energy developers in construction schedules so that local firms could engage in more construction and pre-development work. These options were informed by insights from communities and developers, highlighting the co-produced nature of the framework.

“how its principles could be applied more generally across the private sector”

This framework also provides the starting block for a broader application of community wealth building across the economy – to think about how its principles could be applied more generally across the private sector and to other forms of investment. Communities and renewable energy developers questioned why other industries were not engaging with community wealth building and wider conversations about the impact, and benefits they can provide to the places they establish themselves in. What this would look like for other parts of the private sector, still needs exploration. But with Scotland setting the bar high with the potential Community Wealth Building Bill, now is the time to push the envelope further and grow community wealth building across our all places and all corners of our economies.