Kincardine and Mearns Local Learning Community

Aberdeenshire Council is developing a bold new strategy to safeguard the local economy and make it fairer and more sustainable for the benefit of its communities.

Community Wealth Building (CWB) is a people-centred approach which will bring together communities, businesses, a wide range of public sector bodies and commercial partners to build a stronger local economy.

Among the main focus points will be keeping and growing local spend by supporting businesses to bid for local authority and other public sector contracts.

It will also support communities to realise their ambitions to hold a greater stake in the local economy, through a host of new opportunities including community asset transfers.

As demonstrated successfully by other local authorities who have developed a CWB strategy – including North Ayrshire Council which established the first in Scotland – the council is firmly committed to ensuring public land, resources and assets are utilised more effectively to meet community and business needs.

As part of the initial engagement work, a series of online workshops is being held to gather the views of local partners and stakeholders across key sectors, which will feed into the development of the draft strategy.

An online workshop for the Third Sector, aimed at community groups, charities, and social enterprises, is being held from1.30 to 3.30 pm on Thursday, 16th January – interested groups can register at Eventbrite.

Community wealth building uses five pillars to create more economic benefits for an area:

Spending

Increasing local procurement, commissioning and wider investment, using public spend to deliver community benefit, fair work and build local supply chains.

Fair employment

Increasing fair work and developing local labour markets, ensuring the workforce are in well paid jobs that benefit from an effective voice, security and flexibility.

Land and property

Ensuring that communities maximise benefit and generate wealth from local land and property.

Inclusive ownership

Stimulating the development and growth of locally owned enterprises that generate local wealth. In particular, the encouragement of employee owned businesses, cooperatives and social enterprises.

Financial Power

Ensuring that the flows of wealth generated within the local economy works for the wellbeing of communities and businesses.

Chair of the council’s Infrastructure Services Committee, Cllr Alan Turner, said: “I am delighted to see work starting around a community wealth building strategy for Aberdeenshire which will provide us with the means to deliver wellbeing for every community across the north-east. By working hand in hand with those communities and our commercial sectors, we will enable them to create and own wealth in their local area.

While absolutely acknowledging that Aberdeenshire has a thriving and diverse economy, we know it can be improved to provide more equity for businesses. Our priority is to maximise economic opportunities for everyone across Aberdeenshire by putting people at the very heart of those vital local economies.”

Vice-chair Cllr Isobel Davidson added: “I’m really excited about a community wealth building approach which will offer excellent opportunities for local people to create a more inclusive and thriving community and ensure that the benefits of local economic growth are properly and rightfully invested across Aberdeenshire.”