By Bridie Ashrowan (Chief Executive, EVOC)
Ahead of the First Minister’s Anti-Poverty Summit today, EVOC were part of a Members Meeting last week to input on behalf the communities of Edinburgh and I hope our input, collated with the thoughts of the Poverty Alliance network, helped shape the event and this briefing. It outlines the actions that EVOC and the Alliance membership think should be prioritised to tackle poverty in Scotland; the support that is required for the third sector; and the key outcomes that should emerge from the First Minister’s anti-poverty summit.
How do Poverty and Community Wealth Building (CWB) relate? At EVOC, we have advocated for a place-based approach to be part of the approach to poverty. To support that place-based approach is inclusive and ambitious, and the reason we see Community Wealth Building as part of it is with the evidence that has come from places such as Preston – the most improved city the UK, lifting people out of poverty, as measured by the university there.
Here in Edinburgh, we are a network of many organisations and people who are passionate about thriving communities and individuals… how do we get to where we want to with such challenges. One area where we are only starting on the journey is around Community Wealth Building – how can we build and explore the manner in which they work to progress this and work towards the five pillars. These are in Edinburgh, EVOC Chair, the working & learning group on Community Wealth Building, and at the Edinburgh Community Planning Partnership.
This is an exciting opportunity, post pandemic, and one that we would like time to develop with communities, community organisations, social enterprises, public and private partners.
We are keen to learn from those where it has started – the six pilots, and to see how we can progress with that, e.g. in Fife, where it is integral to Community Planning and there is Charter to get greater commitment. This is our direction of travel in Edinburgh.
Further recognition of the role of our local anchor institutions (Council, NHS, Universities, etc) is required; they are owners of assets and land, and are major employers; they are making significant spends on infrastructure. They are working pro-actively with EVOC through community planning to see if they can move beyond rhetoric.
Community wealth building targets current spending plans in Scotland, by public partners, with billions on construction alone, to shift the dial on social value, and net zero impact, and drive some of this resource into communities, from local jobs to contracts for social enterprises.
Further recognition is needed of the role of community organisations, which are community anchor organisations or community networks, including social enterprises.
The social enterprise landscape is Edinburgh is vibrant, and Edinburgh Social Enterprise (ESE) has launched ‘The Good Stuff Network’. ESE and EVOC are working with the NHS on the regional NHS Community Benefits Portal.
Better design of projects will deliver better opportunities to win sub-contracts or contracts, and improved design of community benefits and local outcomes, such as training & employment.
Community ownership of land and assets in Edinburgh, with the review of the Community Empowerment Act, can public bodies be made to put up ALL spare land and assets to allow for development by communities.
There are lots of good local examples in Edinburgh and EVOC has supported several networks in the city for communities to work towards their own priorities, for example getting started on community building and home retrofitting. EVOC’s new Climate Forum at local level gets people talking together about built ambitions around retrofit.
There is a lot of potential if communities get organised. We need many things happening at different levels and need to be able to feed in. For example we should be able to respond to business and developer consultations not just about community benefits but also about jobs and other aspects.
Over the coming years, £2.5 billion of infrastructure investment will going into areas of Edinburgh. How can we make sure that a good share of that goes to communities and social enterprises?
Examples of existing applications of Community Wealth Building include:
- The launch of Edinburgh as a Living Wage City in Nov 2021 (by the city council), over 40 local employers gained Living Wage accreditation, reaching a further 2000 workers.
- A portal for Community Benefits has been set up by Capital City Partnership, for the region, funded by City Region deal.
- Harbour & Prospect Housing Associations support local small action networks in Leith & Wester Hailes, via EVOC, and bringing community benefits and job opportunities to the table locally.
In summary, EVOC and its TSI partners together, are a vehicle to making the best use of community ambition, connecting business talent, strategic city partners, and leveraging shared resources. Place planning is key to the successful development of a CWB plan – how can the two align better and engage communities in their own solutions for the future.
Our message to you is to get organised at a community level with local partners, in local networks. This will give anchor institutions a place to focus benefits, e.g. jobs being advertised, community benefits on offer, assets that can be transferred to community ownership, and more. We know there are multiple active networks in local places, from Wester Hailes, to Pilton, a smaller site and as a result a number within any of the the Voluntary Sector Forums. Often at the heart of these networks is a commmunuty-owned asset and a development trust with local people leading the governance.
At EVOC we want to support the unlocking of your ambition and ensure that ambition exists in our communities. Let us know how you want us to support that, locally.
More info and key blogs:
https://cles.org.uk/blog/midnight-in-edinburgh-with-adam-smith/
https://cles.org.uk/what-is-community-wealth-building/the-principles-of-community-wealth-building/
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