Meeting of the Parliament 10 February 2026 [Draft]
In many ways, I pick up where Murdo Fraser left off. One of the committee’s key concerns or observations during stages 1 and 2 was that, without any system of measures or monitoring, there is a risk that the legislation could produce reports that are not comparable and that do not necessarily lead to action. The minister observed that we must be careful about targets because, first and foremost, community wealth building must be about community-led action.
I lodged an amendment at stage 2 seeking to come up with a system of measures. I thank the Government for dialogue since then and for the handout amendments that I will speak to today, which I think provide a way forward.
Amendment 20, in my name, sets out a list of measures that community wealth building partnerships “may” use, such as business output, employment, the number of employee-owned businesses or co-operatives, use of the community right to buy and so on. I think that that is a good approach, because it provides a list of things that “may” be monitored, thereby creating a common set of measures that allows us to have some regard to how community wealth building is progressing and how community wealth building partnerships seek to work.
Amendment 29, in my name, would simply remove the amendments in my name that were agreed to at stage 2, making way for the amendments I am speaking to today.
Amendment 31 would ensure that the five-yearly reports that community wealth building partnerships will produce state the progress that they have made against the measures that they set out in their original plans.