What is Community Wealth Building?

Community Wealth Building is an approach to economic activity that prioritises wellbeing, putting people and planet over profit. Economic activity can be defined as: what businesses exist and operate in an area; the financial investment and power that they bring to the local area, and the other social benefits that they bring to the communities they operate within.

Community Benefits are what we call the social benefits that come out of contracts. If a big business comes in from outwith the area to complete contracts it will then have to give back to the community.

This can be done in many different ways – providing resources to local groups, giving volunteer hours to local campaigns, employing or training local people, investing in local businesses, using local suppliers, and bringing resources to the area so that all the profits from their contract do not leak out when they leave.

Community Wealth Building and Community Benefits each provide inward investment for communities. This means that they take the wealth that would usually ‘leak out’ of the area and keep it local. Therefore, the money that’s made by local businesses and projects stays local- this could be from spending profits at local businesses, investing profits, time and resources in community projects, and making the local area a more attractive place to do business. By investing in communities, we can help them to grow into thriving and connected places to live, work, spend and socialise.