Thanks to lobbying by the Scottish Community Coalition on Energy and local communities across the nation, Scotland’s world leading Community Wealth Building Bill now rightly recognises energy as a community wealth building asset.
Our successful amendments to the Bill mean that:
- ‘Energy assets’ are now named as something that Ministers must specifically include in the measures they set out in their annual community wealth building statement. They must include how energy assets will be used to generate and retain community wealth.
- ‘Diversifying ownership of energy assets by facilitating or supporting community ownership’ is now specifically included in the measures that local authorities may include in their community wealth building action plans.
- Scottish Ministers must issue community wealth building guidance to local authorities and public bodies that includes: ‘facilitating and supporting the generation, circulation and retention of wealth in local and regional economies, including through the development of community-owned renewable energy, and skills and supply chains associated with renewable energy.’
Community wealth building is a comprehensive approach to rewiring how wealth is produced, owned and circulated – boosting local and democratic ownership, strengthening local supply chains, and providing more and better local jobs – and anchoring wealth in local communities and council areas. This Bill is the first of its kind in the world.
Community-owned energy is absolutely foundational to building community wealth, and so it’s great to now have that embedded in a Bill that will soon become law. A big thanks to all our Community Energy Scotland members who helped with this by lobbying their MSPs.
Next: we’ll be watching closely, and lobbying where needed, to make sure that the Ministerial statement and guidance, and the local action plans, follow through on this.
