Much to learn from Celtic wealth building
This article originally appeared in the MJ.
CLES’s most recent community wealth building conversation event, chaired by Huw Thomas, Director of Finance at Hywel Dda University, introduced the idea of “small country governments” and the pragmatic role that our Celtic governments are playing in tackling key challenges using community wealth building approaches. They are well placed to do this, the discussion concluded, because they are embedded in their places. But achieving public sector reform must go hand in hand with investing in the development of thriving local communities.
The discussion brought together expertise from across the Celtic nations, including Miriam Brett, Co-Director of Future Economy Scotland, Rhiannon Hardiman, the Policy Lead for Climate, Nature, Economy & Food Future at the Generations Commissioner for Wales, Mary McManus, Regional Manager for Living Wage Northern Ireland and Liam Quinn, Chief Executive of the Waterford Area Partnership.
Community wealth building has been widely adopted and adapted in each of the Celtic nations across the public sector. In each case, it provides a model which is flexible enough that it can be tailored to meet the specific place-based economic context. There was acknowledgement, however, that, although there was a variation within the approaches taken at government and local authority level in each place, there was also a clear appetite to continue to deepen and scale a community wealth building approach.
“get things done”
One of the key advantages of employing a community wealth building lens in the Celtic nations has been its ability to provide a strategic perspective for both public sector bodies and anchor institutions. This perspective has enabled them to plan for economic change and provided a practical methodology for community organisations to “get things done” in the local economy.
One of the key points for discussion was the role that legislation can play as enabler of change and a framework for delivery through the five levers of community wealth building. From my own experience in Wales, I have been lucky enough to witness first hand how the Well-being of Future Generations and more recent Social Partnerships and Public Procurement legislation is beginning to change mindsets and cultures, resulting in tangible progress. Meanwhile in Scotland, Miriam talked through her expectations of how the Government’s commitment to a Community Wealth Building Act will see wealth rooted, retained and redistributed within local communities.
“green shoots are appearing”
Progress, although slower, is also happening on the island of Ireland and it was acknowledged that legislative requirements can “drag both national and local governments out of their silo mindset, as they recognise that achieving the progressive legislative aims is everyone’s responsibility.” Panellists agreed that “green shoots are appearing” within all of the Celtic nations, but that there is still some distance to go.
The complexity of how we talk about economic alternatives was a recurrent theme, particularly the “perceived interchangeability” of terminology surrounding approaches. Discussions highlighted that the lexicon of terminology – well-being economics, foundational economy, circular economy and so on – needs to be joined up to ensure the success of these approaches and that community wealth building methodologies could act as “a glue” to bring the terminology and approaches together.
“take this further and build on the momentum”
All of the panellists highlighted that changes and “tweaks” to procurement policies and processes had been the first step taken by public sector bodies in the Celtic nations in the exploring and implementing community wealth building. All felt that there were opportunities to take this further and build on the momentum of procurement reform.
The session also began to explore the difficult subject of impact measurement and the necessity for this to be explored in greater detail, so that we are able to quantify the impact of the change community wealth building creates. We, of course, recognise the old adage “what gets measured gets done” and an adaptable set of quantitative metrics, supported by qualitative impact narratives, could further the cause of community wealth building practice.
“what small country governments lack in scale, they more than make up for in their ambition”
My key takeaway from the session was the insight and enthusiasm of both community and public sector leaders within our Celtic nations to continue to embed community wealth building and this is something that I hope to be supporting as I take up my new role at CLES in December. More than anything, the event was an invigorating reminder that what small country governments lack in scale, they more than make up for in their ambition to diverge from the rigidity of the Treasury model for local economies and build the foundations for a more inclusive, socially just economic future.
