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Policy actions  4 of 4

Community wealth building

We are committed to exploring the potential for community wealth building as an approach to deliver inclusive growth across Scotland. This will involve working with partnerships of public and private sector anchor institutions, focussing on their role in their local and regional economies as employers, purchasers, asset owners and enablers of wider economic activity. Anchor institutions are large employers or purchasers who are “anchored” in a locality by virtue of their nature (local authorities, health boards), history or supply chains. 

We are currently involved in the development of two projects, one in Glasgow and one in Ayrshire.

This work is in line with the commitment made in the 2017 Programme for Government:

“Building on existing support, including the work of Business Improvement Districts Scotland, we will actively promote wealth building within local communities. We will seek to maximise the benefits of economic activity for local communities by:

  • working with anchor institutions to consider how procurement activity can be better used to support local economic activity
  • helping local enterprises to supply goods and  services to these anchor institutions – keeping money within communities"

We are working with the Glasgow Procurement Collaboration Group – a group of anchor institutions with significant employment and purchasing impact footprints in the local, regional and national economy – on a procurement-focussed project.

This group is led by Strathclyde University and includes the following organisations:

  • Glasgow City Council
  • NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
  • University of Glasgow
  • Glasgow Caledonian University
  • City of Glasgow College
  • Glasgow Clyde College

The project focuses on opportunities to use procurement practice and detailed procurement data to help increase local spending by these anchor institutions which will directly affect small and medium enterprises in the city. 

On 8 April 2019 the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity announced £103 million of investment in the Ayrshire Growth Deal. As part of this, we will be investing up to £3 million in a Community Wealth Building Fund for Ayrshire. This fund will be made available regionally, with activity co-designed between the Scottish Government and the new Ayrshire Regional Economic Partnership (REP).