CWB Bill consultation: our response
Last week, CLES responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation on its proposed Community Wealth Building Bill. For any queries about our response, our our work in Scotland more generally, please contact Naomi Mason, our Scotland lead.
Introduction
CLES welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Community Wealth Building Bill. As the national organisation for local economies, we have been at the forefront of developing, shaping and delivering the practice of community wealth building (CWB) across the UK for nearly two decades.
CLES is recognised as the UK’s leading authority on community wealth building. We co-developed the original CWB model with Preston City Council and have since supported more than 90 local authorities and anchor institutions — across Scotland, England, Wales Ireland and beyond — to develop and implement community wealth building strategies. We worked with the Scottish Government to support the initial five pilot areas of community wealth building activity in Scotland and have deepened our relationship with Scottish local authorities and other key organisations over time as more and more adopt community wealth building initiatives and strategies. Our work has informed national policies in both Scotland and Wales, and we continue to advise governments, city-regions and local partners on how to build more inclusive, resilient, and democratic economies. Our practical insight and deep experience position us uniquely to understand both the promise and the challenges of implementing CWB at scale.
CWB ultimately, is about rewiring local economies so that wealth and power are more fairly distributed, rooted in local places, and democratically governed. It seeks to create a system in which economic activity genuinely serves people and communities — tackling inequality, promoting resilience, and ensuring that economic success is shared.
Why this legislation matters for Scotland
CLES applauds the governments initiative in bringing forth this world first in legislation. Scotland has led the way in adopting CWB as a national policy priority and therefore signalling its intention of fostering inclusive economic practices. The proposed legislation is a welcome and ambitious next step. CLES believes this is an important shift, as legislation ensures that the CWB approach will remain beyond any party-political changes. This is particularly true especially as economic development has not previously been a statutory function for local authorities. By creating a duty on public bodies to develop and implement CWB action plans, the Bill sets out a clearer direction for how local economic policy and investment can be shaped to retain and recirculate wealth within communities. However, to truly realise its transformative potential, the Bill must go beyond process and planning. It must catalyse real, systemic change—aligned with a wider vision of fair, inclusive, and resilient local economies.
The CWB Statement’s commitment to both ‘reduce economic and wealth inequality between individuals and communities in and across Scotland and support economic growth in and across Scotland’ potentially create a discord at the heart of this legislation. The pursuit of economic growth over the previous decades has not led to the improvements in living standards via trickledown economics that the people of Scotland were promised. Instead we have seen rising rates of inequality (SG stats show 20% of working-age adults were living in relative poverty after housing costs in 2021-24), of poverty (Stats from JRF show over one million people still live in poverty in Scotland, with nearly half of those (490,000) living in very deep poverty) and the relentless pursuit of growth has exacerbated climate change. Having twin aims, may create an internal struggle and what we’ve seen in the past, is that the narrative of economic growth often wins out.
If the Scottish Government is truly on a pathway to becoming a wellbeing government with a wellbeing economy, it must make the reduction of inequality the central aim of CWB legislation, as CWB can be the mechanism required to fulfil this mission. Economic growth is of course still required in some places and some sectors, but it should not be at the heart of CWB legislation. Instead, the focus needs to be on the outcomes we are looking to achieve, the quality of the economy we want, and how we can utilise the economy to generate good outcomes for our people and places while still supporting economic activity.
We respond below to key questions of the consultation, drawing on our extensive policy knowledge and practice-based learning, including our previous response to the Scottish Government’s policy development process.
1. Relevant and specified public bodies and the additional duties proposed
CLES broadly supports the list of public bodies specified in the draft Bill and the additional duties proposed. These institutions play a vital role in shaping the local economic landscape and are well-positioned to drive forward community wealth building activity. It may be worth the Scottish Government extending the list to include further high spending contracting authorities as covered by the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.
We welcome the inclusion of local authorities, Health Boards and other public bodies as key actors in developing CWB plans. These organisations often have the largest economic footprint in their localities, and their leadership is essential in creating the conditions for a fairer, more democratic economy.
However, there is little reference to anchor institution networks or the role of partnership working across the public, private and third sectors. The Bill should reinforce the importance of collaborative working through multi-agency partnerships, recognising that no single institution can deliver systemic change alone. These bodies are both community wealth builders – through their own internal processes and actions of doing CWB, but also CWB advocates who can encourage activity from other organisations. Collectively, taking forward this dual role will ensure CWB can create greater impact at a local level.
The Scottish Government can lead by example and support interdepartmental collaboration across themes in the service of a better, fairer economy in Scotland. Aligning national policy around CWB aims, rather than seeing it as a siloed activity of economic development will ensure its embeddedness across Scotland from a national to local level.
Whilst CLES has worked with many places to create CWB action plans (from local authorities to City Regions), and we see and value the merit these can bring, there is also a danger from siloing CWB away from other economic activity and other core strategies and priorities. Yes, CWB refers to economic development activity, but is certainly not the sole pursuit of this department alone. There are already several different action plans and strategies which exist at the local and regional level in Scotland – from RES’s to Local Authority Economic Development Plans. It may have more impact to weave CWB activity into these plans, ensuring the core tenants of CWB are not in addition to other activity, but right at the core of economic activity. By taking this approach, the need to co-produce these documents with other partners would be imperative and greater strides could be made to ensure consistency of approach between organisations at a local and regional level.
As it currently stands, the Bill may place additional burdens on already stretched public sector bodies. Without adequate resourcing, support and capacity-building, public bodies may struggle to implement the duty effectively. The Scottish Government must ensure that this legislative commitment is matched with practical support for delivery. There exist already structures who can meet and progress CWB activity – making use of existing structures – whether CPPs or EDPs, or REPs – will reduce the resource pressure on local authorities and the public sector.
2. Potential unintended consequences of the Bill
While the Bill is ambitious in its aims, there are a number of potential unintended consequences that must be considered in its implementation.
First, there is a risk that the legislation could inadvertently reduce local flexibility or stifle ambition if it becomes overly procedural or compliance driven. If CWB becomes a matter of simply drafting plans to fulfil a statutory duty, rather than delivering meaningful change, the opportunity for economic transformation could be lost. There is a need to ensure places continue activity over time and are supported to be creative and ambitious in the change they want CWB to help them achieve. Ultimately, CWB should be seen as a set of levers which can be pulled which help deliver local needs and tackles challenges – not as something additional to do or action.
Second, the Bill may place additional burdens on already stretched public sector bodies. Without adequate resourcing, support and capacity-building, public bodies may struggle to implement the duty effectively. The Scottish Government must ensure that this legislative commitment is matched with practical support for delivery. Resourcing challenges may encourage authorities to develop regional rather than local action plans, which could lead to local priorities being diluted or overlooked. Ensuring that local needs and action remain central to any regional approach will be key to delivering the core aim of CWB.
Third, the Bill does not currently require baseline assessments or set clear expectations around outcomes and indicators. If progress is to be measured meaningfully, places must begin from a clear understanding of their starting point, and be supported to identify locally relevant, proportionate targets that reflect social, economic and environmental conditions. Scotland’s local authorities are not all the same (neither in size, scale, population, resource or journey with CWB), and cannot action CWB in the same way. Some may have already reached the limits of what their local procurement can provide or be starting from scratch to grow their social economy. Finding a way of supporting new action and activity, whilst allowing places to trial different approaches and be innovative in how they take CWB forward in their places is essential. Regular reviewing or monitoring from both Scottish Government and anchor partnerships themselves, must be established to ensure action is taking place – but this must be delivered in a supportive fashion rather than ‘league table’ approach. Ranking local authorities stifles creativity and enthusiasm which are both essential in the CWB journey. CWB is not merely a reporting exercise, and the Scottish Government must maintain an active role in supporting the public sector implement action, collaborate, learn and at times fail in initiatives. Anchor partnerships should be supported to co-create/produce reviewing and monitoring processes to ensure they are working towards meeting their local needs and activities and are designed with local priorities and needs in mind.
Fourth, the Bill risks being interpreted as focused solely on the public sector. To be effective, CWB must engage the wider economic system — including the private and third sectors — and explicitly support partnership working, inclusive governance, and democratic participation in local economic decision-making. Ensuring representative organisations are involved locally will enable a wider conversation of how CWB priorities can be met through joint action. We see already from our work across the UK that many organisations are adopting the language of community wealth building from across the private and third sector. We have supported the Coalfields Regeneration Trust understand its economic, social and environmental impact and how it can strengthen its role as a community wealth builder and recently completed work with SOSE co-producing a CWB framework which could be used by renewable energy developers. This appetite for CWB should be harnessed, supported and developed. By excluding mention of other sectors, it disempowers those organisations already making strides to reflect on their role and discourages others from taking their first steps. All sectors of society and all kinds of businesses and enterprises can be community wealth builders.
Fifth, the proposed CWB Guidance will be essential to the delivery of CWB – setting out the ‘how’ of delivery and ensuring economic opportunities are not missed. CLES proposes this Guidance must be refreshed on a regular basis (potentially every 3 years) to ensure it is fit for purpose and provides up-to-date learning on approaches trialled and challenges found. CLES proposes that a CWB Advisory Committee is established to support the Scottish Government in reviewing the implementation of the CWB Bill and the Guidance creation and regular refresh which we would happily contribute to. Public sector representatives we have spoken to are keen to see case studies which detail how CWB related projects have been undertaken and learnings which have come from these. UK wide examples are helpful in this and CLES would be happy to support development through our connections with local authorities across the UK.
Finally, CWB legislation does not sit on its own, it touches many other current and proposed pieces of legislation from Democracy Matters to Land Reform, Wellbeing and Sustainability to Procurement. By implementing CWB legislation, it may then be that other legislation requires change to ensure they support and complement the Scottish Government’s CWB ambitions and do not hamper activity.
3. How the Bill could benefit local communities and small businesses
If implemented effectively and supported by meaningful guidance and resources, the Community Wealth Building Bill has the potential to deliver significant benefits to local communities and small businesses across Scotland. The question should clearly define what it means by small business. We would propose the Scottish Government pay close attention to micro enterprises which are so prevalent in our economy and essential for our local economic ecosystems, as well as IDBMs.
We know from our years of experience that CWB can help ensure that wealth generated within a locality stays within that place, rather than leaking out through extractive business models or remote ownership structures. By encouraging local procurement, fair employment practices and social value considerations, public bodies can direct more economic opportunity to local firms, cooperatives, and social enterprises.
For smaller enterprises, this approach can open up new markets, foster inclusive supply chains and create stable, long-term demand. Through our work with the Federation of Small Businesses alongside local anchor institutions, we have seen how targeted procurement reform, inclusive economic development and stronger relationships between public bodies and local suppliers can strengthen local economies. We can also see that there are still challenges in place to delivering procurement though smaller and local enterprises. CWB legislation alone will not tackle these challenges.
Ultimately, there may well be benefit to local communities and small businesses – but the Scottish Government will need to think how they plan to measure this and quantify it. Taking procurement as an example, current procurement reporting does not break down to micro level businesses in annual procurement reports – therefore missing out a significant opportunity to see where public spend reaches and how smaller SME suppliers can be supported in applying for appropriate procurement opportunities. Accurate reporting to ensure we can track spend into IDBMs is also essential to understand the growth of this sector. Furthermore there are inconsistencies in annual procurement reports reporting, and indeed in the availability of these reports. The Scottish Government should work with Local Authorities and other high spending contracting authorities to ensure procurement reporting is consistent, transparent and the data underpinning these reports is publicly available. There is a significant role here for the Supplier Development Programme who should be supported to continue to deliver support and programmes which enable procurement from smaller enterprises.
The Scottish Government will need to create a set of metrics to measure CWB impact – which feed into the National Performance Framework and can help work towards the Programme for Government and NSET priorities. This will ensure CWB activity is well documented, accountable, and not siloed. CLES will happily support in the creation of these metrics – something we have been undertaking more and more in other places. As part of this the Scottish Government needs to consider the CWB outputs and outcomes it is working towards, in order to develop robust metrics through which it can track its CWB progress.
4. If you think the Bill will achieve its aim
CLES believes the legislation is the first part of the journey to community wealth building in Scotland. At the moment the legislation has two aims – to reduce economic and wealth inequality and to support economic growth. By focusing on one of these, reducing economic and wealth inequality, CLES does believe this legislation will begin to achieve its aim. As stated in other question response – this legislation cannot be viewed alone and must complement and be complemented by other relevant legislation. Furthermore, CWB cannot achieve its aims if concurrently wider economic strategy is focussed on inward investment and economic growth. If the Scottish Government is committed to CWB, it needs to be at the heart of all its economic and social strategies and policies.
Conclusion
CLES remains a committed partner in advancing the principles and practice of community wealth building. We believe the Scottish Government’s proposed legislation represents a bold and necessary step towards embedding a new economic model that serves the needs of people and places.
To maximise its impact, the Bill must highlight the links across other policy areas to truly deliver systemic change. This means recognising the diverse starting points of Scotland’s localities, ensuring alignment with the National Performance Framework and other key policy agendas, and providing the resources and guidance necessary to support implementation.
We urge the Scottish Government to use this legislation as a platform for long-term transformation—grounded in local collaboration, shared wealth, and democratic ownership. CLES stands ready to support this effort and to continue working with partners across Scotland to realise the full potential of community wealth building.
