Community Wealth Building strategy aims to improve local economic development

NHS Ayrshire & Arran has this week launched its Anchor/Community Wealth Building (CWB) Strategy.

It is designed to harness its power to help improve local economic development.

NHS Ayrshire & Arran, along with its local partners in the Ayrshire Community
Wealth Building Commission, which includes East, North and South Ayrshire
Council, has adopted Community Wealth Building as a key practical approach to
economic development.

It aims to address some of the challenges posed by post-Covid recovery, health inequalities, child poverty and the climate emergency.

Lesley Bowie, Chair of Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board and Community Wealth
Building Champion, explains more about what Community Wealth Building means.

She said: “Community Wealth Building aims to increase the flow of wealth in to our local communities. It helps to boost local investment; keeps spending local where possible; makes better use of local assets; creates fair and meaningful jobs that pay the living wage; and supports more locally rooted, ‘generative’ businesses that share the wealth they create with workers, consumers and communities.

“We have launched our Anchor/Community Wealth Building Strategy, which sets out how we can positively impact health, social and environmental outcomes for those living in Ayrshire and Arran.”

The strategy supports the Ayrshire Regional Economic strategy and the ambition to reset the local economy to create a region where wealth is shared fairly, enabling
people of all ages to live full and healthy lives.

NHS Ayrshire & Arran aims to invest and spend locally where possible, create fair
and meaningful employment, design and manage NHS buildings, land and assets to maximise local and community benefits and to reduce health services environmental impact.

Lesley Bowie adds: “Local businesses and our local communities have been
impacted by the economic downturn and the cost of living crisis. Ayrshire and Arran’s economy, despite some strengths, has areas of high unemployment, poverty and inequality well above the Scottish average.

“NHS Ayrshire & Arran has an important role in supporting local economic recovery and to improve outcomes for local people by mitigating ingrained inequalities that cause poor health for many in our society.”

For information on Community Wealth Building in NHS Ayrshire & Arran and to read the strategy, visit https://www.nhsaaa.net/about-us/community-wealth-building/