SFHA response to Community Wealth Building Bill Consultation
SFHA will continue to follow the development of the Community Wealth Building legislation and keep members informed of any implications.
SFHA submitted a response on Tuesday to the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth on behalf of its membership as a part of the Scottish Government’s Community Wealth Building Consultation. The Consultation prepares for incoming legislation on Community Wealth Building (CWB) due to be introduced in this Parliamentary session. The future CWB Bill intends to accelerate the delivery of a Community Wealth Building approach—which the Scottish Government has adopted to help enable a wellbeing economy as outlined in its National Strategy for Economic Transformation—based on the following 5 pillars: Spending, Workforce, Land and Property, Inclusive Ownership, and Finance.
SFHA believes its membership successfully supports the Community Wealth Building Agenda in many different ways and takes the stance that safe, quality, and affordable housing provision is a critical piece in supporting communities to generate and retain wealth. We wrote that RSLs play an important piece—alongside citizens, partners and other key anchor organisations—to help enact the social, environmental, and economic principles underpinning the Community Wealth Building approach. Community Investment activities look different from member to member, according to residents and the places in which they operate, but SFHA was pleased to share examples of the ways in which our members help build local wealth. This includes enacting net zero via retrofits and influencing the supply chain of green technology and green skills. It also includes resident programmes around youth training, employment opportunities, and personal financial wellbeing, among many others. We noted in our response that Scottish Government funding for RSLs does not fully account for these activities and their benefits to the communities RSLs serve. We asked for additional and more flexible resourcing to be considered, in recognition of the importance the consultation placed on building new economic model and the opportunities that brings.
Main points of SFHA’s response included:
- Spending- RSLs are under intense pressure from increased development costs related to materials, Brexit, energy standards, and labour supply. The Community Wealth Building agenda’s emphasis on local spend and procurement presents opportunities for RSLs to have positive influence but requires continued investment from the Scottish Government to help develop shorter supply chains and available skills necessary for meeting housing targets.
- Workforce- Our members have concerns about current skills gaps in the construction sector and SFHA encourages priority support for the Scottish Government to work in partnership with colleges and funders to upskill contractors required for meeting environmental standards. Implementation of a workforce pillar within CWB legislation should also provide additional support to remote, rural and island communities for local supply chain resilience. We also highlighted that RSLs play a valuable role in creating meaningful job opportunities and providing skills development/training programmes for residents.
- Land and Property- Access to land and property is an important part of many RSL’s net zero strategies and some members have expressed difficulty in acquiring existing stock. SFHA supports calls for increased flexibility of grant to allow RSLs to acquire existing buildings and bring stock up to standard, where appropriate. Some RSL’s retrofit activity is targeted at increasing housing supply for key workers and this should be supported within an effective CWB Bill that supports wellbeing, health, and care.
- Inclusive Ownership- We support the emphasis on citizen engagement under CWB legislation and believe additional resource for projects jointly delivered between community anchor organisations, including RSLs, would advance this pillar and increase opportunities for ‘deep and accelerated community wealth building’ in the affordable housing sector. SFHA welcomes the inclusion of, “Greater acknowledgement of the role of support organisations and the need to ensure they are adequately resourced to maintain and grow outputs,” as proposed in the consultation.
SFHA will continue to follow the development of the Community Wealth Building legislation and keep members informed of any implications. For more information or discussion, please contact SFHA Policy Team.