Scotland Moves Beyond Growth to Create Landmark Community Wealth Building Bill

The Community Wealth Bill has passed. Our Director (interim) Lisa Hough- Stewart outlines

 why this is just the beginning, and what must happen to embed community power, accountability and wellbeing at the heart of our economy.

There’s a real reason to celebrate this week. The Scottish Parliament has passed the Community Wealth Building Bill, a landmark piece of legislation that marks a genuine shift in how we think about economic decision-making in Scotland. 

This is a significant shift. It recognises that economic success cannot be measured by growth alone: It must also be judged by whether people and places are thriving.

The passing of the Bill gives Community Wealth Building a statutory footing for the first time. It requires ministers to publish a statement and public bodies to develop action plans. This creates a national framework for more consistent implementation across Scotland. 

For us at WEAll Scotland, this moment feels like the culmination of years of grassroots organising, policy innovation and community leadership. Community Wealth Building (CWB) has always been about more than economic activity: it’s about redistributing economic power, strengthening local decision-making and nurturing economies that serve people and planet first.

For too long, economic decision-making has been dominated by narrow measures of success: GDP growth, corporate profit, and a focus on attracting external investment above all else. Yet these traditional measures often fail to capture the quality of our lives, the strength of our communities, or environmental health.

At WEAll Scotland, we have consistently supported Community Wealth Building as a key tool for delivering a wellbeing economy in practice. In our response to the consultation on the proposed legislation, we set out how CWB could help tackle inequality and build economic resilience across Scotland. We also highlighted the need for strong accountability and meaningful community participation.

At its core, community wealth building flips the script on traditional top-down economic models. Instead of wealth flowing out of local areas to distant shareholders, this approach focuses on keeping wealth circulating within communities, creating better jobs locally, and supporting businesses that are rooted in place. The Bill encourages councils and public bodies to work with their communities to generate, circulate, and retain prosperity right where people live and work.

Community wealth building shares deep values with the wellbeing economy movement. It recognises that:

• Economies should serve people, not the other way around

• Wealth retained locally fuels stronger, more resilient communities

• Democratising economic power leads to more equitable outcomes for all

  
  

This has the potential to drive real economic transformation that boosts resilience, narrows inequality and supports ecological wellbeing alongside human flourishing. It’s also an exciting signal that Scotland is prepared to be a global leader in how economic policy can be reoriented around community success. You can find out more about Community Wealth Building from our friends at CLES.

Of course, passing a Bill is not the finish line, it’s a beginning. Our hope now is to see this transformative intent translate into bold implementation. That means:

• Public bodies fully embracing the spirit of community wealth building, not just the letter of the law.

• Communities having genuine influence over how wealth is generated, shared and reinvested locally.

• Supportive policy frameworks and resources to help people shape action plans that reflect their unique hopes and challenges.

  
  

The Bill creates an important framework to advance these ambitions. It embeds Community Wealth Building in legislation and requires planning and reporting. 

The real work now lies in turning ambition into action. Stronger local supply chains, more democratic ownership, fairer work and greener investment will not happen automatically. They will require collaboration across national and local government, civil society and communities.

Delivering real progress on inequality, participation and resilience will require sustained political will, resourcing and accountability. 

Today, there’s a palpable sense of possibility. Passing the Community Wealth Building Bill is a proud moment for Scotland and a significant win for those of us committed to building economies that care for people and planet.

With this new Bill, and elections around the corner, 2026 can mark a new chapter in Scotland’s economic transformation story. Our manifesto sets out five more bold ideas for action, developed in collaboration with dozens of our members across Scotland.

I’m excited to step in as the new interim Director of WEAll Scotland at this pivotal moment. I feel invigorated by what’s possible and grounded in the knowledge that real transformation only happens when we build it together: in our communities, homes, workplaces and shared public spaces.