We work with partners across and beyond our district on lots of different projects. Close to our heart is Community Wealth Building, which we see as an important part of the just transition strategy, with the ability to engage communities, generate and hold more wealth locally and keep money in circulation locally.
There is a short video and written explanation of the basic principles of Community Wealth Building at the bottom of this web page. If you want some more in-depth reading after visiting this page, you can access plenty of extra reading here.
In September, we ran a very successful conference in partnership with Unite Community (Leeds, Wakefield York Branch), supported by Wakefield Council, Nova, Climate Action Leeds and Wakefield and District Trades Council. We called it “Let the community be the solution – Community Wealth Building for our district“. You can read about it here.
We listened to three really interesting and informative presentations. The first session was a keynote by Matthew Brown from the Democracy Collaborative (also Preston City Council, Paint Your Town Red) which you can see below. Matthew explained the ideas, their implementation and the benefits, triggering a lot of discussion and questions.
We also heard two very strong case studies from organisations who work as community centred enterprises: The Carbon Co-op and Spectrum Community Health CIC. You can see these two case studies below. Co-operatives and Community Interests Companies are two classic structures that communities can use to create and run projects to deliver services and generate employment for mutual benefit.
Ellie Radcliffe, Carbon Co-op.
Michelle Marsden, Spectrum Community Health.
Again, these two case studies generated a lot of interest and discussion, with lots of questions from the floor.
We finished the afternoon with a panel discussion to begin to think about questions generated in the earlier sessions. The panel had representation from the Trade Union movement, the voluntary and community sector, an anchor institution and community arts.
The most successful and concrete outcomes from the conference were that over 60 people signed onto a network mailing list, and key partners committed to work to develop and implement these approaches across Wakefield District. This gives us the potential to progress from talking at a conference to doing on the ground.
If you would like to join our Community Wealth Building network, use the link at the bottom of the page to get in touch, and make sure you tell us that you want to join the Community Wealth Building Network rather than our general mailing list. (Welcome to join our general mailing list too! You can see we have plenty going on!)
Community Wealth Building Basics
“Community Wealth Building is a new people centred approach to local economic development, which redirects wealth back into the local economy, and places control and benefits into the hands of local people.” (CLES: https://cles.org.uk/community-wealth-building/what-is-community-wealth-building/)
The five principles of community wealth building
- Plural ownership of the economy
- Making financial power work for local communities
- Fair employment and just labour markets
- Progressive procurement of goods and services
- Socially productive use of land and property
Elements of community wealth building include
- Procurement of goods and services from local enterpises by anchor institutions
- Support for community owned enterprises (co-operatives, CICs…)
- Insourcing services where possible
- Community Participation
Benefits of Community Wealth Building include
- Money circulates locally and regionally for longer, benefiting local communities
- New employment and income opportunities for local organisations and businesses
- Community reslience and sustainability
- Local services meeting the needs of local communities
- Secure and just employment practices
Our conference partners, Unite Community Leeds, Wakefield & York Branch have written this pamphlet that you will find interesting and instructive.