Community Wealth Building

Community Wealth Building (CWB) is a different way of supporting the local economy. Instead of focusing mainly on attracting outside investment, CWB aims to make sure more wealth stays in local communities, creating good jobs and supporting a diverse range of local businesses.

CWB helps build a fairer, more resilient economy by reducing the amount of money that leaves our towns and villages, and by encouraging organisations to use their spending power in ways that benefit local people.

Why we are taking this approach

Across Scotland and the UK, there is growing interest in Community Wealth Building. The Scottish Government sees CWB as an important part of creating a wellbeing economy -one that focuses on fairness, sustainability and long‑term local benefit.

Large organisations like councils, colleges, health services and housing providers are known as anchor institutions because they serve their local area and provide services for the long-term. These organisations spend millions each year on goods and services, but much of that spend currently goes to national suppliers. CWB encourages anchors to “spend local”, helping local businesses and social enterprises grow and keeping more money circulating in the local economy.

Watch our short introduction to Community Wealth Building:

What the council is doing

We have developed a Community Wealth Building Strategy that sets out our aims for the next three to five years. The strategy is built around five key pillars:

1. Spending – buying more goods and services from local businesses and supply chains
2. Workforce – promoting fair work and improving opportunities for local people
3. Land and property – using public assets in ways that benefit communities
4. Finance – keeping local investment circulating locally
5. Building the generative economy – supporting small, locally owned enterprises to grow

A Community Wealth Building Commission has been created to oversee progress. The Commission has produced annual reports which give more information on what is being done to build community wealth in South Lanarkshire.

Find out more

• CLES the national organisation for local communities
• Scottish Government website (gov.scot)
• Economic Development Association Scotland (EDAS)