Ariane Burgess: There's a buzz in Scotland now about community wealth building

When I meet people who haven't seen me since I was elected, they quickly ask, "Are you enjoying the role?" Unequivocally I respond, "Yes."

A big part of my yes is the opportunity I have in the role of helping communities shape their places, especially as we are all taking on the urgent need to tackle the climate and nature emergencies. Communities are best placed to do this, but they need national and local government support.

Recently I've been talking with people from communities and local authorities about community wealth building. Community wealth building is a term that describes five bold actions that can be taken to ensure that wealth is created in the local community by the community and improves the lives of the people there.

The five actions include – local ownership of land and property, local procurement, ownership of the economy through multiple community-owned businesses in the form of workers' cooperatives and social enterprises, fair work and employment, and local finance.

There's a buzz in Scotland now about community wealth building in part because, as part of the agreement between the Scottish Greens and the Scottish Government, there's a commitment to bring forward a Community Wealth Building bill, and the consultation is currently underway until 9 May.

In many ways, community wealth building is something communities across Highland have been doing for some time now. With the support of the community buy-out process and the Scottish Land Fund, communities can purchase land or property and find ways to make that asset generate income.

I've met communities who've become anchor organisations through purchasing land and, with the help of Community Energy Scotland, have gone on to set up income-generating renewable energy projects. These projects, in turn, provide a consistent income so communities can plan for long-term action to see their communities thrive.

But it's not just renewable energy that can become an income generator. At the recent opening of Trees for Life’s superb Rewilding Centre at Dundreggen, I recognised that Trees for Life and all the organisations that supported them with funding to build the centre had created an anchor organisation for the local community.

The Rewilding Centre will employ the equivalent of twenty full-time equivalent jobs, employing people from the local community. They focus on procuring the food for the café and services locally too.

There is so much opportunity for communities in place already in Scotland. But it takes commitment and hard work to get the ball rolling. The Community Wealth Building bill can be part of smoothing the way. I'm looking for ways to design better processes that truly support communities to unleash their power.

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