Scotland has become the first country in the world to write community wealth building into law. But what does that mean for the places where people actually live and work — and can a framework like this hold against the pull of global capital, data centres and footloose investment? Neil McInroy, Global Lead for Community Wealth Building at The Democracy Collaborative, traces the idea from Cleveland to Preston to the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Act 2026, and is candid about what it can and can't do.
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In this episode
Community wealth building starts from a plain question: who holds wealth in a place, where does it go, and how much of it stays? Neil sets out the five "pillars" the approach works through — fair work, progressive procurement by large public anchor institutions, community-focused finance, democratised land and property, and, the one he treats as most important, inclusive ownership: co-operatives, employee ownership, community and public ownership.
He tells the story of how the idea travelled: from the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, set up to win real contracts from local anchor institutions, to the Preston model from 2013, and on to the places now picking it up across the US, Europe, Australia and South Korea. He's open about what didn't work along the way, and about the lessons he draws from Preston — such as how a change led from the top, without an organised movement underneath it, only goes so far.
The conversation turns to Scotland. Neil describes what people should expect to notice as the Act is implemented locally, why he thinks the legislation created a short "hiatus" rather than an immediate surge, and where he'd put the odds on it succeeding. He doesn't dodge the hard parts: the limits of a framework against large extractive projects, the pull of foreign investment, and the risk that alternative economics stays "the preserve of the privileged".
About Neil McInroy
Neil McInroy is Global Lead for Community Wealth Building at The Democracy Collaborative, the US-based research organisation that originated the term, where he supports inclusive-ownership strategies and systemic economic reform in the US and internationally. He spent around two decades as Chief Executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) in Manchester, where he helped pioneer community wealth building in Britain, including the Preston model. He has advised the Scottish Government on community wealth building and chairs the Economic Development Association Scotland (EDAS). (Sources: The Democracy Collaborative; Future Economy Scotland.)
Further reading
- The Democracy Collaborative — community wealth building
- The Democracy Collaborative on the Scottish law — "A World First"
- Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Act 2026 — full text, legislation.gov.uk
- Scottish Government — community wealth building policy
- Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) — cles.org.uk
Listen & watch
- 🎧 Audio: Listen Here
- ▶️ Video: https://youtu.be/ofpnimWFoEc
- Also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.