What does the Community Wealth Building Bill mean?
The Community Wealth Building Bill has been introduced by The Scottish Government to create jobs and drive economic growth by boosting investment in communities.
The Bill will see the Scottish Government consult with key individuals and organisations to prepare and publish a statement about community wealth building that will then require local authorities to produce and implement a community wealth building action plan.
The Scottish Government will consult with stakeholders to produce a community wealth building statement that details suitable measures for reducing economic and wealth inequality between individuals and communities while supporting economic growth across Scotland.
These measures would likely include:
- using public procurement to drive local wealth and economic growth
- supporting community ownership of land or buildings
- developing initiatives for local business start ups or entrepreneurship
- promoting/supporting the development of employee-owned businesses
Following the introduction of the statement published by the Scottish Government. Local authorities will be required to prepare an action plan within an agreed timeframe that sets out the local measures proposed to support the generation, circulation and retention of wealth in the local economy.
We recognise our responsibility in developing public sector frameworks that are accessible for local businesses to apply for providing them with a fair chance to work with the public sector and create wealth locally supporting new businesses, creating jobs, transforming communities and growing the Scottish economy.
For a selection of our frameworks there are allocated spaces for micro businesses to apply for providing a much fairer competition. It means that there is a greater chance for smaller businesses to be awarded a place provided they meet the framework criteria and they won’t have to compete against larger businesses.
We actively engage with Supplier Development Programme to promote our framework opportunities to their full database of SME businesses across Scotland.
SDP help us reach a much larger pool of prospective bidders through webinars and events which equally give us a forum to share information about the application process and details about our opportunities. These events give businesses a chance to speak with our team and ask questions to give them clarity and awareness of the expectations and requirements to allow them to make informed decisions about progressing their interest.