Introduced by the Scottish Government on Wednesday 20 March 2025, the Economy and Fair Work Committee wants to hear your views on the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill.
What does the Bill do?
Community Wealth Building (CWB) is an approach to economic development that tries to use the power of ‘anchor organisations’ to grow and retain wealth within a local economy. Anchor organisations can be public, private, or third sector bodies that have a large enough presence in a local area to be able to change economic outcomes. These could include local authorities, the NHS, large private sector employers, universities and enterprise agencies. Under the CWB approach, these types of organisations might, for example, use their spending power to procure locally, pay the real living wage, or facilitate community ownership of land or assets.
All of Scotland’s local authorities are currently working with their own CWB models. However, these are not always underpinned by formal plans and the extent of implementation varies.
The Scottish Government says the purpose of this Bill is to ensure that CWB is implemented consistently across Scotland as an economic development tool. The Bill proposes to do three things:
- Place a duty on the Scottish Ministers to publish a CWB statement which sets out the measures they will take to facilitate CWB.
- Require local authorities and ‘relevant public bodies’ to publish and implement a CWB plan for their area.
- Require ‘specified public bodies’ to have due regard to CWB guidance when developing their corporate plans and associated delivery strategies.
Call for Views
Within this consultation, the Economy and Fair Work Committee are looking to understand:
- If you think the Bill will achieve its aim.
- If you agree with the relevant and specified public bodies that are proposed, and the extra duties placed on them.
- If there are potential unintended consequences to the Bill.
- How the Bill could benefit local communities and small businesses.
They are particularly interested in hearing from:
- Local authorities and their partner organisations
- The ‘relevant public bodies’ named in the Bill
- The ‘specified public bodies’ named in the Bill
- Community organisations
- Third sector organisations
- Business representatives
- Experts in economic development
To submit your views, please complete the online submission form.
The consultation will close on Friday 23 May 2025.
For further information, please visit the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill – Citizen Space website.
