What is Community Wealth Building?
“Community Wealth Building” is a community-focused approach which aims to promote collaborative development of the local economy from the ground up – supporting a fairer society and providing a platform for local people to influence and shape their community.
By redirecting wealth back into the local economy, this helps communities prosper and realise self-supported, positive change in their local area.
The ESES CRD Community Wealth Building project is made up of partner organisations (Capital City Partnership, West Lothian Council & GoBeyond) who have secured funding through the Regional Recovery & Renewal fund to accelerate existing Community Wealth building agendas to a regional level by emphasising the 5 key principles.
The five key principles of Community Wealth Building are:
- Progressive procurement – developing local supply chains of businesses likely to support local employment and keep wealth within communities
- Fair employment and just labour markets – Using anchor institutions to improve prospects of local people
- Shared ownership of the local economy – supporting and growing business models that are more financially generative for the local economy
- Socially just use of land and property – developing the function and ownership of local assets held by anchor organisations, so local communities benefit from financial and social gain
- Making financial power work for local places – increase flows of investment within local economies by harnessing and recirculating the wealth that exists
GoBeyond Work across local neighbourhoods in South West Edinburgh and are a network of trusted local voluntary sector partners, including WHALE Arts, Space and Big Hearts. Our purpose is to increase the capacity within our community organisations so that we stay resilient and strong in times of crisis.
West Lothian Council are the largest employer in West Lothian and have adopted the 5 key principles of Community Wealth Building including becoming a Living Wage employer and other offerings such as their West Lothian Community Choices.
Through embedding the five key principles of Community Wealth Building across the ESES region, this enables delivery of an integrated strategy that builds the economy from the ground up with the community at heart.
Below is a feature on the work of WHALE Arts and community wealth building in the Wester Hailes area of Edinburgh: