CLES reacts to the prime minister’s speech at Labour Party Conference

Strong echoes of community wealth building

There were strong echoes of community wealth building in Andy Burnham’s speech to Labour Party Conference this week.

He began with the essentials of a good life: decent housing, affordable energy and water, transport that works, care when we need it and access to good work. His argument was that these things should not simply be left to the market, but treated as part of the common wealth on which people, communities and the wider economy depend.

That connects closely to a central idea within community wealth building: that the economy should work in the interests of people and place, and that more of the wealth generated through economic activity should be retained, circulated and shared within our communities.

Burnham also touched on many of the practical levers at the heart of community wealth building: stronger democratic control of land and housing; the intentional use of public spending and procurement; decent work; and “care that is about people not profit”. And, importantly, he talked about ownership — from stronger public control of water and housing to a publicly owned Great British Grid.

The speech was strongest on the diagnosis and the direction of change, and understandably lighter on precisely how this new economy might be built. That is where community wealth building has something practical to offer. Across the UK, councils, public institutions and communities are already showing the art of the possible: using procurement, land and assets, employment, investment and new forms of democratic ownership to change how wealth flows through local economies.

The task now is to build on that practice — moving from a compelling account of what needs to change to reshaping the institutions and ownership of the economy so that wealth and power genuinely serve people and place.