Meeting of the Parliament 10 February 2026 [Draft]
I begin by thanking the Economy and Fair Work Committee for its scrutiny of the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill. I also highlight the input from Richard Leonard, Paul Sweeney, Rhoda Grant and others as being particularly helpful.
The committee’s stage 1 report stated that community wealth building has the potential to play a vital role in improving the lives of people across Scotland. I think that that is true and, since I became responsible for the bill—I thank Tom Arthur for his earlier work on taking the bill forward—it has been apparent to me how much support there is for community wealth building across the country and internationally. I am aware that many organisations support the legislation and are keen for it to pass.
The bill’s main aim is to create a new and consistent platform for local economic development in Scotland—a new format that recognises the economic agency of every pound of public money alongside the necessity for the public sector to partner with businesses and communities in the pursuit of sustainable and inclusive economic growth. We need to encourage the kind of growth that everyone can benefit from. Community wealth building can play a key role in generating, circulating and retaining wealth in our local and regional economies, ensuring prosperity and benefit for all.
When I assumed responsibility for the bill, I was clear that the legislation must add value to economic policy objectives and work as a public service reform measure. We need only look at what community wealth building is achieving on the ground to see the benefits. It is growing all forms of local business, creating and protecting jobs, extending greater asset ownership and influence to communities and attracting more investment into our local economies.
The bill obliges future Scottish Governments to publish a community wealth building statement that will set out the measures that the Scottish ministers intend to and are taking to advance community wealth building in Scotland across the five pillars of the economic development model, which are spending, fair work, land and property, new business growth and investment. The statement and detailed statutory guidance will assist community wealth building partnerships, which are made up of local authorities and relevant public bodies, to produce their own community wealth building action plans.
I expect that other contributors to the debate will point to things that they wanted to see in the bill in specific discrete policy areas. However, I believe that establishing a strong cross-Scotland focus on community wealth building as an economic development model will ensure a consistent realisation of economic benefits for all areas and regions of Scotland over time. As the policy advances, the policies, budgets and laws that are relevant to its success can be examined with a view to establishing whether change is required in any contributory area that can spark the creation of more jobs, more businesses, further innovation and increased community asset ownership.
In general, the bill has been informed by the desire to enable democratically elected local government to lead a process of active reform and improvement without creating a complex attendant bureaucracy. Local authorities will sit at the centre of a core partnership of those public sector anchor bodies with the highest degree of economic agency in their investment and delivery activities. They will be partnered by our enterprise agencies, health boards, colleges and regional transport partnerships.
Among the many important recommendations in the committee’s stage 1 report was the call for clear guidance to help community wealth building partnerships to develop plans and implement actions in concert. An inclusive and collaborative development process with regard to statutory guidance has already started. Clear guidance, informed by successful practice, is key, but too high a level of prescription in practice is not desirable. The majority of our local authorities are already pursuing community wealth building policies and objectives, and I am confident that an approach that is built on collaboration and empowerment has the best chance of success.
The bill sets out a list of specified bodies that must be consulted when community wealth building guidance is being prepared and that
“must have due regard to guidance”
when it is published. Although all those public bodies also have economic agency as employers, asset owners, purchasers or investors, we determined that it was appropriate that they should have a lesser level of leadership expectation with regard to advancing community wealth building in Scotland.
I expect that local partnerships will want to engage many specified bodies in their discussions, and many of the bodies can demonstrate telling contributions to community wealth building. However, it is appropriate that local, collaborative conversation reflects local context and circumstance.
To reflect the fact that some local authorities will want to work together, the bill makes provision for neighbouring councils to work on a regional basis. That provides flexibility for community wealth building partnerships and, whatever the pattern of uptake in this context, all partnerships would be expected to set out plans that are complementary to community wealth building objectives to strengthen local economies and empower local communities.
It is critical that the voice of local communities is at the core of community wealth building. As an economic policy, I want the power of our communities to be harnessed to help build our local economies. Ideas from communities about growing businesses and creating jobs must be listened to.
The next Scottish Government and subsequent Administrations will be tasked with considering how all relevant Government activities can contribute to community wealth building, whether very directly in areas such as procurement, fair work or skills, or in a wider range of policy areas, where public investment or regulation might flex and change to assist our economy to grow in a way that is successful, sustainable and fair.
Community wealth building is an attractive policy to many, as people want to see and feel change where they live: for example, improved and vibrant high streets, increased job prospects with good terms and conditions, and strengthened, resilient communities.
The bill will not change everything overnight, but it forges a new common purpose for the public sector to work with partners in the private, third and community sectors to focus on growing our economy for the benefit of all.
In moving the motion in my name, I urge members to vote to pass the bill.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees that the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill be passed.