The concept of anchor institutions – organisations rooted in a place that can play a defining role in creating and reinforcing local economic ties – has been present in the UK for over 10 years.
A few weeks ago, I was chatting to someone about CLES, our work in Scotland and our expertise in community wealth building. They made a comment about us “just” designing action plans for local authorities. I explained we did a lot more. Afterwards I paused to reflect, if they don’t know what we do, perhaps it’s time to explain? So, this blog is a little different, not so much Scotland focused, but CLES focused. If you’ve ever thought, “what do they do at CLES?”, then this blog is for you.
The youth are losing faith in the establishment.
The last few weeks have been full with events and meetings focused on renewable energy here in Scotland. As the push to grow the renewables sector and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels increases, so too do conversations about who can and should benefit from Scotland’s natural resources. Luckily, we are “blessed” with abundance in this regard – it is always windy somewhere in Scotland!
Instead of ringfenced budgets and top-down controls, the report – The Case for Total Place 2.0 – calls for a return to joined-up local decision-making, where councils, the NHS and other local bodies collaborate to meet the real needs of their communities.
“a rare win-win that today’s system urgently needs”
The OG Total Place – an ambitious initiative first launched by Gordon Brown’s Labour government in 2009 – empowered local agencies in 13 pilot areas to pool resources, tackle complex problems together, and deliver smarter, more human solutions. The results? Better outcomes for residents and long-term savings – a rare win-win that today’s system urgently needs to rediscover.
When the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act was first implemented I was working at Glyndwr University and I remember being inspired about how it could shape our local and regional public services.
Even The Archers, the world’s long-running soap opera, has picked up on the issue. Farmers are struggling, squeezed by supermarket giants and rising costs. Meanwhile, more families than ever rely on food banks, childhood obesity is soaring, and the climate crisis demands urgent action to rethink how we produce and distribute food. Yet, instead of investing in local supply chains, public money continues to flow to large national suppliers.
But what is Community Wealth Building, and why does it matter? I am going to use this article to set out the nuts and bolts, explore the implications of this new legislation and look to the future. First, though, I’ll explain who the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) are. CLES are the national organisation for local economies. We have been working for nearly 40 years supporting places to understand how they can make their local economies more resilient. We pioneered the development of Community Wealth Building in the UK, following on from work in the US and, nowadays, we work across the UK and Europe to support places to take a Community Wealth Building lens to their local economies. We work with places to instigate and enable change and are proactive in supporting them to develop economic strategies and activities which suit their challenges and opportunities and which deliver for their people. Here in Scotland we have been active for many years as Community Wealth Building has become more established, first in our places and now in government legislation.
“economic growth alone cannot be relied on”
Before I get into Community Wealth Building, I’ll set the scene for why we need to take a new approach. We have an economy which currently prioritises economic growth, delivered via external private capital. We are told that more growth will reduce inequality and pay for public services. Yet, despite our relentless pursuit of growth, in recent decades the UK has seen dramatic rises in poverty levels, business uncertainty and an escalating climate crisis. It is clear, then, that economic growth alone cannot be relied on to tackle these issues.
We’ve all been in those rooms where people are airing their grievances about public services. The bins not emptied, the potholes left unfilled, the care for a loved one delayed, the SEND child unsupported, the cemeteries unloved.
It isn’t often that economic development is exciting – or at least that’s what my friends tell me when I talk about my job. But, for those in the community wealth building space, the long awaited Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill has been hotly anticipated. So, when it was released last week, it felt like a pivotal moment. Whatever else may be said, this legislation remains the first of its kind in the world – certainly something to be celebrated.
If nothing else, special economic zones (SEZs) are resilient. Spatial zoning – offering tax incentives, simplified regulations and other benefits to attract inward investment and deliver growth – have been a mainstay in central government policy in the UK since the 1980s and have survived the turbulent transitions from Boris Johnson’s Levelling Up agenda all the way through to today.
“a potential lifeline”
SEZs can be diverse in actual policy form – although most readers will recognise their current incarnations: freeports, greenports, investment zones and enterprise zones – but they all have a shared aim to stimulate local economies, thus offering a potential lifeline to many local authorities who struggle to find ways to do so.
This article orignally appeared in the Local Government Chronicle.
Whilst more organized than the previous government’s approach, the essential subtext of English devolution remains intact: Westminster will hand over power and resources to mayors – as long as they enlist their regions in the battle to ‘relight the fire’ of GDP growth for UK plc.
As I near my one-year anniversary of joining CLES as our lead for Scotland, I’ve been looking back at what has happened over the last 12 months. It has been quite a year, with political turbulence in Holyrood, Westminster and across the world, not to mention the continued global instability in our climate and economies. So – as the Scottish Budget was announced last week – I couldn’t help but reflect on both how interlinked we all are and how our local economies are profoundly impacted by global change.
“power and politics are fundamental to change”
I’m reminded that, by building flexibility, community wealth building makes our places stronger and more resilient to the fluctuations of wider economic systems. But this takes time, effort and persistence. It also takes political will and power. I’ve previously written about the opportunity that the forthcoming community wealth building legislation could bring to Scotland, and the many forms of power which our rural communities can tap into, or struggle against, so I won’t labour the points here. Suffice to say, power and politics are fundamental to change.
“bringing power from Holyrood down to our local places”
What we don’t talk about often enough, however, is the relinquishing of power. When we talk about devolution, transferring power away from Westminster to the nations or regions of the UK, we often focus on that first step away from the centre. What we talk less about is the stages beyond. Often, bringing power from Holyrood down to our local places seems to be a step too far here in Scotland. There were high hopes for this to happen over the last 25 years of the Scottish parliament, but how well it has truly benefited Scotland’s local democracy is not clear, a point which was beautifully articulated by Bill Howat in an article published last week. And there is a further question: even if power had reached our councils to a greater degree…what then? Are they even the best mechanism for delivering local democracy and decision making? Opinions differ. According to the results of a Democracy Matters consultation earlier this year, the answer is no: there is an appetite for more community-led decision making and power.
First, there is growing evidence of impact.
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.
