Empowering Communities

In light of the new Welsh Government’s early commitment to legislate to create a Community Right to Buy scheme, the national discussion on how this should be shaped is already taking place.

Why is ownership of land, buildings, energy, homes, assets and local services important for communities that want to shape their own future? What conditions help community ownership succeed, and what tends to hold it back?

These were some of the questions explored by Community Energy Wales’ co-executive director Leanne Wood in a recent panel discussion at a Cwmpas conference on Communities Creating Homes at the Temple of Peace in Cardiff, along with Natalie Sargent from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust and Chris Blake from Green Valleys CIC, facilitated by Dr Dan Roberts from Cwmpas.

The discussion centered around community ownership and community wealth building and its role in powering places and explored:

• The opportunities the Welsh Government proposed Community Right to Buy legislation for Wales could this create for communities

• An exploration of the elements that communities would need in place to make effective use of a Community Right to Buy, including skills, finance, governance, advice, partnerships.

• Ensuring legislation supports long-term community stewardship, rather than just asset purchase

• The interconnection between community energy, regeneration, housing and local enterprise connect when building stronger places

• What would success look like in five years if Wales gets Community Right to Buy and wider community ownership support right?

The questions stimulated a wide ranging debate on the potential for a community wealth building approach, and learning from what has been done in communities such as Blaenau Ffestiniog with Cwmni Bro Ffestiniog – a collective of fifteen networked social enterprises which has expanded throughout Gwynedd to form Cymunedoli; and Preston - where a community wealth building approach through public procurement has reduced the unemployment rate there by 4%.

There was discussion around the capacity of communities to meet the challenges and opportunities that come with building a circular economy and reducing or ending the “extractive” nature of our economy.

The new government’s commitment to legislate for a “Community Right to Buy” presents an opportunity to learn from how this has been done in England and Scotland, and do it here better. Having to register assets and land before they can be purchased potentially raises legal and practical challenges for communities.

Is there a different, better way that Welsh legislation could be developed, enabling communities to have the right to buy any asset that has potential use or benefit to that community?

If Wales gets this right, we have potential to seriously ramp up the number and value of assets in community ownership, which would provide greater sustainability, resilience, security and income for communities, reducing dependence on the public purse and increasing people’s agency, involvement and sense of belonging to their community.

Why would we not want to do this?