community wealth building: promoting resilience at the local level derek whyte assistant director,...
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Community Wealth Building: Promoting Resilience at the Local Level
Derek Whyte
Assistant Director, Economic Regeneration
Preston City Council
01772 903430
• One that is not adversely affected by an economic crisis - ie does not go into decline (Resistant)
• One that is adversely affected by an economic crisis but recovers to its former peak (Recovery)
• One that is adversely affected by an economic crisis but recovers to its past growth path (Renewal)
• Questions of what measure to use
(GDP, employment, household income…)
http://www.espon.eu/export/sites/default/Documents/Projects/AppliedResearch/ECR2/ECR2_Revised_Interim_Report.pdf
(Economic Crisis: Resilience of Regions – Cardiff University lead)
What is a resilient economy?
• Business• Economic structure• Sectoral diversity• Export orientation• Profitability and debt
• People• Qualifications and skills• Labour market flexibility• Labour market
adaptability• Savings rate• Migration patterns
Components of resilience • Community
• Social networks• Behavioural norms• Non-market economy• Disposable income
• Place• Urban structure• Accessibility• Natural environment• Territorial
characteristics
• Governance
Responses will be spatially different – depending on local mix and “path dependency”
Blackpool
Blackburn
Burnley
Greater Manchester
Ribble Valley
M65
To London
To Glasgow
M6
Preston
Rail
Key: Cities with characteristics of
Tourism/Heritage
Regional Services
Industrial
Travel-to-work
area
Irish Sea
Note – brown arrows indicate direction of main travel-to-work movements
M55
M61
Preston – location and context
To Manchester Airport
Promoting Growth…through City Deal• Partnership between Preston City Council, Lancashire County
Council and South Ribble Borough council – comprising:
• City Deal Infrastructure Delivery Programme - £ 334m – 4 major highway schemes, community infrastructure
• City Deal Investment Fund - £ 100m allocation from Lancashire Pension Fund for co-investment in housing and development schemes in city deal area
• City Deal Stewardship Board – retained HCA sale receipts (estimated at £ 37m)
• To unlock:– 20,000+ new private sector jobs– 17,420 net new homes– Nearly £ 1bn in additional GVA; and– £ 2.3bn in leveraged commercial investment
..and Promoting Fairness• Living Wage – accreditation and promotion to local businesses
• Co-operative promotion – sponsorship, partnership, business support – e.g.“Simply Buyout” launch 19th November; Mondragon speaker 21st November with UCLAN
• New Credit Union coverage for Preston
• Inner East Preston Neighbourhood Plan – in train; Community Asset Transfer etc.
• Community Engagement work – community food production, guerrilla gardening etc.
• Community Wealth Building – draw inspiration from Ted Howard of the Democratic Collective/”Evergreen” Co-op www.Community-Wealth.org; www.Evergreencooperatives.com
• Social Forum – bringing civic society together to promote/campaign on
STRATEGY1. Focus anchor institution purchasing locally
2. Create new community-based, co-op businesses
3. Green
4. Link to expanding sectors of the economy (e.g., health, aging, energy, food, waste & green technologies)
5. Ensure financing and management to move to scale
Community Wealth Building (1)
• What is an anchor institution?• “Sticky capital” that doesn’t get up and leave• Typically among the largest employers in most
major urban areas• Local economic engines: employ large numbers
of people; purchase large amounts of goods & services
• Vested interest in surrounding communities• Typically non-profit• Largely untapped potential
Community Wealth Building (2)
• Preston City Council, Lancashire County Council, Preston College, Cardinal Newman College, Lancashire Constabulary, University of Central Lancashire, Community Gateway (Housing) Association – all on board!
• Work with CLES for independent analysis and experience• Draw on Manchester experience and FSB national report on
procurement spendhttp://www.fsb.org.uk/policy/assets/local-procurement-2013.pdf
Action• Undertake baseline supply chain analysis for each anchor (take
largest 300 contracts by value)• Development of collaborative vision for local benefit• Actions with each anchor institution around process and practice• Identification of sectors and services where there is scope to
influence and derive more local economic benefit• Work still in progress….
Benefits of Local Procurement
Local Procurement
benefit to anchors:
Better vendor servicing/better access to critical
goods and services in crisis
situation/decrease carbon
footprint/lower costs
Local Procurem
ent benefit to communit
y:
Increasing local
employment/
stabilizing neighbor-
hoods
Building a network of
inter-connected vendors,
purchasers, financial
institutions, training and
higher education
Emerging Findings - PCC
• PCC – total procurement spend £ 14.3m• 20% of spend on business activities suppliers• 14% spend within Preston LAD boundary• 69% of Preston spend in areas of deprivation• Key gaps in business activities and
manufacturing spend• 29% spend in Lancashire• Key gaps in business activities and other
services
Emerging Findings – across Anchors
• Relatively low levels of local spend across the institutions
• Commitment to the project for four reasons:– To support local employment and Living Wage– To think differently about procurement practice– Spirit of co-operation and maximising benefit– Need for new models of supply
Key Issues• How do you define “local”? City boundary, FEA, PUA, sub-region?
• What do you track – spend or employment?
• What if a national company is a significant local provider/presence?
• Can you really identify local vendors if purchasers track by PO Box address and/or have multiple locations
• How do you build trust between the anchors?
• Are “gap” co-ops realistic in the UK context?
• Work with the grain of EU procurement rules – not as daunting as you might think
Next Steps• Finalise baseline supply chain analysis
• Identify gaps in spend and opportunities
• Draw together anchors and procurement specialists at a workshop (January 2014)
• Develop collaborative vision across anchors
• Tailor specific actions to each anchor. Might include:
– service commissioning (links to corporate priorities)– procurement strategies (accessible portals, packaging, streamlining
process & documentation)– pre-procurement (work with local business networks, apprenticeships,
local labour clauses, capacity building)– Delivery (supplier networks, spend analysis & outcome monitoring,
paying suppliers quickly)
In difficult times - a continuing role for local intervention!