Rural Scottish Case Studies
Beyond the pilots, and indeed the recently passed
Community Wealth Building Bill, what is next for Community Wealth Building in
Scotland?
Our new qualitative study explores emerging good practice at the local level
through three rural and island case studies:
- Creative placemaking in Dumfries & Galloway
- Employee owned rural enterprise on Arran
- Community energy and local wealth capture in Shetland
We found:
- Decades of innovation already underpin community wealth building practice in rural and island Scotland
- Local delivery, led by strong collaborations between public bodies, community organisations & businesses
- Community ownership is central to wealth building
- Challenges include procurement, finance, fair work constraints & rural infrastructure
Our headline recommendation?
Moving beyond the pilots, and
the Bill, to accelerate rural and island communities in their Community Wealth
Building work. We suggest local
Community Wealth Building accelerator projects to share expertise and scale transformative
approaches.
The full report includes recommendations across all five Community Wealth Building pillars, from procurement and fair work to land, finance, and plural ownership models, setting out a path for how rural and island Scotland can continue to lead the way in building a fairer, more resilient local economy.
What is next?
Next we will be developing a Community Wealth Building monitoring and evaluation framework, which will further support Community Wealth Building implementation in Scotland.
This report is part of the Novel Insights on Rural and Island Economies project, and is
independent research funded by the Scottish Government. Our other Community Wealth Building
publications are available at the links below and to the right.
