North Ayrshire is the first Community Wealth Building council in Scotland.

Community Wealth Building is an approach to economic development that means more local employment and a larger and more diverse business base, ensuring that wealth is locally owned and benefits local people.

It means working in partnership with businesses, organisations, and communities, to build a strong local economy that supports fair work, and is about

  • the goods that we buy
  • the people that we employ
  • the assets we own
  • the powers we have that can bring about change to maximise local economic opportunities

Community Wealth Building has five pillars focused on making sure that wealth is locally owned and benefits local communities: Procurement; Fair Employment; Land and Assets; Financial Power; and Plural Ownership.

Promoting strong local relationships to enable local retention of wealth and increased local spend is a key feature Community Wealth Building. In addition, a positive lesson learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is the negative impact seen by international supply chains. The opportunity exists to build local supply chains, which will create more local economic opportunities and innovation, as well as reducing environmental impact.

We will support our business base on progressive business models, workplace innovation and fair work, and upskill our advisers to enhance our understanding of the social economy.

We will ensure our commercial property portfolio supports the growth of the local businesses base and entrepreneurial activity. We will explore how our assets can support our wider Community Wealth Building, including green and digital, aims.

Fair Work is work that offers balances the rights and responsibilities of employers and workers; and can generate benefits for individuals, organisations and society. We will provide support to help businesses embed a Fair Work approach, including mapping a strategy to allow for the payment of the Real Living Wage, developing flexible working practices, offering staff development and creating mechanisms where the staff voice can be heard.