Pillars
There are 5 pillars of community wealth building, each of which is outlined below.

1. Plural Ownership

Plural ownership of the economy is one of the five pillars of community wealth building. It seeks to promote locally owned and socially minded enterprises, as well as encouraging more diverse models of enterprise ownership that enable wealth created by communities to be held by them, rather than flowing outwards. 

Plural, or inclusive ownership, involves promoting a wider range of enterprise ownership types. These include public sector ‘in-sourcing’, municipal enterprises, worker ownership, co-operatives, community ownership and local private ownership. These models enable wealth created by users, workers and local communities to be held by them and recirculated locally, rather than generating profits to shareholders outside the area.   

Developing and growing small enterprises, community organisations, co-operatives and municipal ownership is important because they are more financially generative for the local economy – locking wealth in place. 

3. Finance and Local Places

The finance pillar aims to increase investment within local economies by channelling local wealth into local investment, from sources such as local authority pension funds, or mutually owned or regional banks with social objectives to promote local economic development. 

An aim of community wealth building is to increase flows of investment within local economies by harnessing and recirculating the wealth that exists, as opposed to attracting capital. This includes redirecting local authority pension funds and supporting mutually owned banks. 

5. Land and Ownership

This land, property and other physical assets pillar aims to ensure that public bodies and anchor institutions (like universities and hospitals) enable communities to take direct control of common assets and/or manage them to promote social objectives, such as inclusive and sustainable growth.  

An aim of community wealth building is to deepen the function and ownership of local assets held by anchor institutions, so that financial and social gain is harnessed by citizens. Develop and extend community use – public sector land and facilities as part of the commons. 

2. Workforce and Fair Work

The workforce and fair employment pillar concerns the availability of local employment opportunities; the quality of employment, for example, by committing employers to pay the living wage and build progression routes for employees; and the fairness of local employment by, for example, promoting recruitment from lower income areas and by encouraging inclusive employment practices. 

Within community wealth building, anchor institutions (large, locally rooted organisations with a major presence and impact in a local area. Anchor institutions employ many people, spend large amounts of money, and own and manage lands and assets. Many anchor institutions deliver crucial public services. Examples include local authorities, NHS Boards, colleges, and housing associations) have a defining effect on the prospects of local people. 

Recruitment from lower income areas, paying the Living Wage and building progression routes all improve local economies. 

4. Spending and Procurement

The spending and procurement pillar, sometimes called progressive procurement, is about the procurement processes and decision-making of anchor institutions (large, locally rooted organisations with a major presence and impact in a local area. Anchor institutions employ many people, spend large amounts of money, and own and manage lands and assets. Many anchor institutions deliver crucial public services) to spend more money in local economies to create dense local supply chains and networks of local small and medium-sized enterprises, employee-owned businesses, social enterprises, cooperatives and other forms of community ownership.   

An aim of community wealth building is to develop dense local supply chains of businesses likely to support local employment and retain wealth locally. These include SMEs (Small and medium sized enterprises is a term encompassing micro-enterprises [up to 10 employees], small enterprises [up to 50 employees] and medium sized enterprises [up to 250 employees]), employee-owned businesses, social enterprises, co-operatives and community businesses.