Meeting of the Parliament 20 November 2025
First, I thank Richard Leonard for mentioning the Fenwick Weavers Society, which, in 1761, established the world’s first co-op. The rest of his speech made me wonder whether I had wandered into the wrong debate, but I enjoyed it, nevertheless.
The Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill must be one of the shortest bills that I have seen during my time in Parliament—all in, the main content of the bill is only seven pages long, so it was a bit of a surprise that our Economy and Fair Work Committee managed to write 53 pages about it.
The aim of the bill is fairly straightforward: it requires all of our councils and relevant public bodies to prepare and publish a community wealth building action plan and to implement it. It is simple enough.
Some members of the committee asked why we need a bill to put something in place that some authorities are already implementing, and when great work is taking place not just in the pilot areas but in other areas. The short answer, though, is that it is to ensure that all councils do it, because we know that some do not. It also allows us to have a consistent approach to embedding the principles of community wealth building throughout Scotland.
Having been lucky enough—if that is the right phrase—to have lived through the past attempts at community wealth building in my council many years ago, the work that I see taking place now seems to be the right approach. I remember well huge community planning partnership meetings, packed with officials, stakeholders and councillors, and the poor community groups sitting by the side, waiting patiently for their turn to speak, hoping that some progress would be made for them. That approach did not work, in my view. It was too big and overarching, and it was not really localised. It was all driven from the top down—an approach that has been mentioned a few times this afternoon.
In contrast, what I see happening now works. In North Ayrshire and East Ayrshire, I have seen small local groups coming forward, and dedicated and talented officials who, instead of driving the process from the top down, work with local people to help them to progress their vision. That is absolutely the key to success. When that approach is in place, community groups see it working and more of them come forward to participate.
I have been fortunate to have visited communities with colleagues from the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee and from the Economy and Fair Work Committee and seen for myself the work that is taking place. The Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee visited Millport, in Great Cumbrae, to see the amazing work there to restore the old town hall. I visited it again on its open day just a few weeks ago. We also saw some local projects that were under way to establish a small gin distillery in the town and a new camping business.
The convener of the Economy and Fair Work Committee mentioned Irvine. The committee heard from local people from the Ardrossan Community Development Trust, which was doing great work to regenerate the promenade, introducing things such as accessible deck chairs for the community and building inclusive play parks.
Just down the road in my area in East Ayrshire, a number of projects are under way that fit in with the community wealth building approach, backed up with £3 million-worth of investment to help the work along. One such example is the net zero accelerator project, which supports local businesses to cut their energy costs and reduce emissions. The project has been recognised nationally and has received an award at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities excellence awards. To date, it has supported 50 businesses to reduce more than 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, while creating more than 100 jobs and unlocking around £37 million in contract value for participating firms. It is a real green dividend that is paying off locally.
All those examples are working under the umbrella of community wealth building. They work because they are being driven by local people, ably supported by officials who care about and support their communities.
The bill really is as short as I said at the beginning of my speech, but sometimes the smallest things can make the biggest difference. I urge all colleagues in Parliament to get behind the bill at stage 1 and give all of our communities across Scotland a chance to participate in that exciting work.
15:53