Fife Council and ESES Community Wealth Building pledge

 

Fife Council, on behalf of the Fife Industrial Innovation Investment (i3) Programme, have become the first City Region Deal project to commit to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal Community Wealth Building (CWB) Pledge.

Last year Fife Council engaged with CLES (Centre for Local Economic Strategies) to understand what the awareness of community wealth building was within the projects being delivered under the Edinburgh South & East Scotland City Region Deal.

“Committing to these pledges demonstrates our dedication to accelerating inclusive growth and removing barriers to growth in our inclusive economy.”

Gordon Mole, Head of Business and Employment, Fife Council.

They wanted to discover what each project’s ambitions were towards embedding the principles of community wealth building into business as a matter of course.

The findings highlighted how the region can build on its progress to date, to further embed community wealth building principles into its projects and programmes. As a result of the findings, the team at CLES created a framework, along with a pledge to gain commitments from the deal projects.

The three priorities of the pledge are:

  • one – support the growth and development of SME’s

  • two – support other progressive forms of ownership

  • three – support progressive employment practices

These priorities align and act to reinforce the Benefits Realisation Plan objectives of the ESES City Region Deal ensuring the CWB is woven into all projects.

Fife’s Industrial Innovation Investment programme (i3) is being delivered as part of the ESES City Region Deal, with an aim to provide much-needed serviced employment land and new industrial, office and business spaces, as well as creating new skilled permanent jobs, short-term construction jobs over the 15-year lifetime of the City Region Deal.

“Committing to these pledges demonstrates our dedication to accelerating inclusive growth and removing barriers to growth in our inclusive economy.” Gordon Mole, Head of Business and Employment, Fife Council.

Fife Council have been proactive on their own community wealth journey and instil the core values of the 5 pillars of CWB in their day-to-day activity.

Find out more information about why committing to the pledge was important to Fife Council and how this will influence their activity going forward here.

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