To build Scotland back up from the bottom requires the development of community strength and the devolution of economic power below the Holyrood level, writes Dave Watson.
The Jimmy Reid Foundation, in line with Jimmy Reid’s views about the role of community, has published several papers over the past decade making the case for building stronger communities. In a new report, Building the Local Economy, we focus on the economic problems many communities across Scotland face.
The paper argues that governments and councils focus too narrowly on retail operations when developing policies for the local economy. While the retail sector does need action on planning, funding and taxation, the problems pre-date online shopping and developed when global corporations captured the high street. The new UK Government has put growth at the heart of its economic strategy. All growth is local to somewhere, and governments must support the local economy to succeed at the Scottish and UK levels.
Governments must understand that the local economy should be viewed in the broader community context. The local economy is not simply a cold economic calculation based on population, employment and productivity. To function, it needs a healthy, supportive community. That requires investment in the social infrastructure that binds communities together. Suitable housing, which individuals and families can afford, underpins the local economy. Scotland’s persistent health inequalities also undermine the local economy, along with a poor environment and inadequate transport links. We should support low-traffic neighbourhoods and the ’15-minute city’ concept, although these should be co-designed with the local community. Colleges can be anchor institutions working together with schools, and early years learning and public services should be organised in community hubs that facilitate joined-up provision.
The riots in England warn of what happens when community cohesion breaks down and people lose a shared identity, community pride and a stake in their neighbourhood. Many of the towns that suffered the worst rioting have been systematically abandoned for decades. When there is a lack of belonging, self-worth, sense of equity and democratic participation in communities facing hardships, the conditions develop in which extremist narratives take hold. While Scotland has thankfully avoided the rioting we have seen in England, many underlying factors apply to our most disadvantaged communities. We should not be complacent and should urgently help build stronger local communities that will reject the language of hate.
The paper is critical of the measures taken by all governments — City Deals, levelling up, town centre action plans, etc. They are all piecemeal initiatives and not consistently applied. They lack the broader perspective of what makes communities work, and they do not provide long-term consistent funding. All the while, core council funding is being cut. We argue that the identity of high streets should be in the hands of communities, who should be empowered to find new uses for empty spaces that create a better high street. This means ensuring people make products and experiences locally according to their customs and traditions. There are examples of this across Scotland, such as the Community Ownership Hub in the Clyde Valley, but we need more.
We recommend a renewed focus on Community Wealth Building, supporting cooperatives and municipal enterprise. Governments must also move away from traditional economic indicators like Gross Value Added (GVA) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A Wellbeing Economy measures success in terms of the broader collection of outcomes that the economy can deliver for its people, recognising that economic growth should benefit the people who are part of that economy.
The solutions proposed in the paper include the devolution of revenue-raising powers. Communities need the ability to finance the essential support to the economy in a way common elsewhere in Europe. For countries where councils have equivalent responsibilities to Scotland, between 50% and 60% of income is raised locally compared to less than 20% in Scotland. Local election turnout is generally significantly higher in countries with greater devolved taxation. The paper sets out a new structure of local taxation to achieve this.
The paper also argues that we should build Scotland back up from the bottom, with the active involvement of local communities. Devolution has stopped at Holyrood, and local services have been centralised. We still have some of the largest basic council units in the world, a point recently highlighted in the Building a New Local Democracy in Scotland Declaration. A strong local economy needs a strong local democracy – a place where local people and businesses have a real say in how the community is organised and resources are allocated. Getting more people involved in the local governance of our lives will help to drive the local economy forward and empower communities to shape their own futures.
Building the Local Economy makes the case for a new approach to supporting Scotland’s local economies. While we must address the challenges facing the high street, the local economy must be viewed in the broader community context. We need a holistic approach to the local economy that moves away from piecemeal initiatives and develops a long-term strategy to build stronger communities.
‘Building the Local Economy’ can be downloaded from the Reid Foundation website.
Dave Watson is the Director of the Jimmy Reid Foundation.
