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Latest editorial
Community wealth-building in North Ayrshire shows the way forward
One Scottish council is already breaking with the neoliberal norm and using a new approach to build 1,625 council homes and three council-owned solar farms – this is the example the CWU wants to see spread, writes CRAIG ANDERSON
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THE local elections are just a few weeks away and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) believes that, with the current cost-of-living crisis and the continuing reduction in funding from the Scottish government to local authorities, we need a new approach by all local authorities in Scotland.
This new approach is already delivering results in North Ayrshire, where the community wealth-building model is demonstrating that there is a different way.
The CWU is supporting this approach, which is now Scottish Labour Party policy for all council candidates, but is calling on all political parties and councillors in Scotland to adopt this model and policies.
These are important elections and North Ayrshire Labour Group’s record in power demonstrates what can be achieved.
The Labour administration has shown that local government is not powerless to effect change but can embark on a transformative political and economic programme that delivers local change while influencing national policy.
From the massive council-housebuilding programme (1,625 new council homes already approved, across every ward in North Ayrshire) to a world-leading period poverty initiative, North Ayrshire has never settled for managing the status quo a bit more effectively than its opponents but is instead committed to using the power of local government to deliver radical change.
North Ayrshire’s community wealth-building approach under the leadership of Joe Cullinane is not just seeking to spend a bit more of the council’s procurement spend with local businesses — it is seeking to use every resource at its disposal — finances, physical assets and people — to repurpose the local economy so that it works for local people and protects the environment.
We see no better example than the council-owned renewable energy projects.
The Labour administration has approved three council-owned solar farms (two of which will repurpose two former landfill sites) and three wind turbines which will generate 277 per cent of the council’s future energy needs — turning North Ayrshire Council into a net exporter of renewable energy.
The projects do not just generate renewable energy, but municipal ownership means that they will generate tens of millions of pounds of income for the council, money that can be reinvested in North Ayrshire.
Perhaps the Scottish government should have looked at this before selling off our sea beds to multinationals on the cheap.
With the cost-of-living crisis we all face, North Ayrshire Labour will use the income from the renewable energy projects to tackle fuel poverty over the next term by making homes more energy-efficient.
That is what community wealth-building is all about — democratic ownership of the economy and public services which lock in the benefits, and wealth, of economic activity for the local community.
It is why the CWU is right to see community wealth-building as a model that can deliver worker and community-owned post offices and provide local input into services such as broadband provision.
In local authorities like North Ayrshire, a transformative political and economic agenda is on the ballot paper and that’s why the CWU continues to campaign for it and ultimately sees community wealth-building initiatives grow across Scotland with our motion at this week’s STUC Congress.
Craig Anderson is CWU regional secretary for Scotland.
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