Views sought on community wealth-building

VIEWS are being sought on proposals to help grow local economies and ensure more money stays in the hands of communities.

The Scottish Government has launched a consultation, with the aim of, among other things, placing a legal duty on public bodies such as health authorities and local councils to use the economic levers they have – for example in sourcing goods and services – to support the transformation of local and regional economies.

Other ambitions include:

• promoting co-operative, social enterprise and employee-owned businesses to ensure that more wealth which is generated locally stays local;

• creating fair work opportunities for local people and those who face barriers to employment; and

• ensuring land and property are used for the benefit of local communities, business and the environment.

Says the Scottish Government, here: “The Scottish Government is consulting the public on plans for new community wealth-building legislation – [believed to be] the first of its kind in the world – as part of its wider strategy to transform Scotland’s economy.”

Views are being sought, here, by April 25.

Pictured: Culross, Fife – where Community Wealth Minister, Tom Arthur MSP, launched the consultation (at the villages’s Red Lion Inn, a community-owned pub and key local employer which aims to reinvest its profits back into the community), Picture credit: Place Design Scotland

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