News
The Preston model: CLES report on community wealth-building
The Centre for Local Economic Strategies and Preston City Council have just published a report detailing the achievements and lessons learned from implementing what is becoming known as “the Preston model” of community wealth-building.
There’s a surprising amount of clear, useful material in this nonetheless concise report; you should really read the whole thing, if only for the sake of spending an hour on convincing yourself that there really is an alternative to the prevailing slow-motion trainwreck of public service provision. By way of a taster, the introductory section describes community wealth-building as follows:
… a powerful approach to local economic development. Through this approach local economies are reorganised, so that wealth is not extracted but broadly held and income is recirculated. These ideas are being applied by a growing number of businesses, public and social sector organisations across the UK who are now driving a shift in economic development thinking.
There are five core strategies, the fourth of which is of particular relevance to PSTA regulars, but all of which necessarily interlock to form a new paradigm for redevelopment:
- Plural ownership of the economy
- Making financial power work for local places
- Fair employment and just labour markets
- Progressive procurement of goods and services
- Socially productive use of land and property
To find out how it started and what they actually did, you need to go and read the report — so go download a copy, and then send it to a handful of colleagues before reading it yourself. A story this good needs sharing as widely as possible.