Event Insights & Resources for MembersEvents
EDAS is pleased to provide members with comprehensive follow-up information and resources from all our events. Whether you’re catching up after attending, revisiting key insights, or exploring presentations and recordings for the first time, our curated collection of post-event materials makes it easy to stay informed and connected.
November 18 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Community Wealth Building movement: Lessons, Challenges, and the Path Forward Webinar
About
This summary has been created with the help of AI
The event “Is Your Town Ready for Community Wealth Building?” brought together EDAS, Scotland’s Towns Partnership, and several expert contributors to explore how Community Wealth Building (CWB) can reshape Scotland’s towns. Opening remarks emphasised that towns are the heart of Scotland’s identity and economy, but many face inequality, declining centres, and economic leakage. The purpose of the session was to help participants imagine towns as places where wealth is created and retained locally.
Neil McInroy outlined the core ideas behind CWB, describing it as a practical framework for redesigning local economies. He highlighted issues such as wealth flowing out of towns through absentee ownership and low-paid seasonal work. He described five practical pillars for retaining wealth locally: local ownership of assets, anchor-institution procurement, plural business models, finance that serves place, and fair employment. He also explained the significance of Scotland’s forthcoming CWB Bill, which would make CWB action planning a statutory requirement for councils.
Linda Gillespie focused on community asset ownership, discussing barriers such as funding gaps, capacity challenges, and the need to rationalise which assets communities should prioritise. She emphasised that ownership is sometimes not the only solution and encouraged more partnership-based hybrid models, particularly for complex assets such as large churches. Examples such as Huntly and Midsteeple Quarter illustrated how successful ownership relies on long-term belief, local leadership, and supportive institutional partners.
Alan Paul from Fife Council shared practical examples of CWB in action, including their “Life Chances” employment programme and procurement reforms that significantly increase spending with local businesses. He described the Dunfermline Learning Campus as a major case study demonstrating how a large public-sector project can embed social value and local economic benefit at scale. Fife’s approach treats the council as an economic actor, integrating CWB across departments rather than locating it solely within economic development.
Dr. Caroline Brown highlighted the role of spatial planning in enabling CWB, arguing that towns are ideal “canvases” for this work because of their historic role as centres of economic exchange. She emphasised tools such as local place plans, which give communities a meaningful voice in shaping long-term aspirations and identifying opportunities.
In the closing discussion, speakers addressed how to measure whether CWB is genuinely transforming local economies, concluding that deeper indicators – such as wealth flows, interdependencies, and population retention – must complement traditional economic metrics.
Recording
Slides
Additional Resources
- Hawick Place Plan
- Agenda and Papers – Cabinet Committee of 9 October 2025
- What is the aim of the project? – Collaboration for Health Equity in Scotland – Environmental healt…
- Place Standard | A&DS
November 19 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Is Your Town Ready for Community Wealth Building? EDAS and Scotland’s Towns Partnership Joint Event
About
This summary has been created with the help of AI
Chair Zahra opened the session by welcoming an international audience and outlining the purpose of the webinar: to reflect on how Community Wealth Building (CWB) has evolved, where it is heading, and why “upstream economics” is needed to help communities thrive by design. She stressed the role of public institutions in using their economic power to strengthen local places.
Ted Howard of The Democracy Collaborative traced the development of CWB from its origins in 2005 through early models like Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperatives. He highlighted the movement’s global spread – from Preston to Scotland, Amsterdam, Australia, and South Korea – as a response to extractive economic systems.
Neil McInroy described CWB as a structural shift in wealth and power in response to today’s “polycrisis.” He emphasised the need for practical action, supportive policy, and movement-building, and argued that all five CWB pillars must be deployed together for real transformation.
Stephanie McHenry shared a practitioner lens, noting growing interest in the U.S., especially among Black communities, HBCUs, and regions seeking fairer economies. She called for clarity on the five-pillar model and highlighted opportunities to expand worker ownership.
Dr. Sarah Longlands of CLES outlined three priorities for the future: empowering people, taking a more integrated approach to economic systems, and deepening collaboration. She stressed that strong local relationships are a form of wealth and that CWB’s future depends on collective purpose and partnership.