Welcome to the Edinburgh and South East of Scotland City Region Deal (ESES CRD) Community Wealth Building information site.

What is Community Wealth Building?

Community Wealth Building is an approach to economic activity that prioritises wellbeing, putting people and planet over profit. Economic activity can be defined as; what businesses exist and operate in an area, the financial investment and power that they bring to the local area, and the other social benefits that they bring to the communities 
they operate within.

Community Wealth Building and Community Benefits each provide inward investment for communities. This means that they take the wealth that would usually ‘leak out’ of the area and keep it local.

Therefore, the money that’s made by local businesses and projects stays local – this could be from spending profits at local businesses, investing profits, time, and resources in community projects, and making the local area a more attractive place to do business. 

By investing in communities, we can help them to grow into thriving and connected places to live, work, spend and socialise. 

Click here to download our interactive Toolkit

The 5 Pillars of Community Wealth Building

The 5 Pillars were created by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) after extensive research and insight from pilots like the Preston model, with an aim to collaborate to understand challenges, develop strategies and policies that deliver practical actions which impact the lives of communities.

Click on the sections to find out more about each of the pillars. 

To learn more about the work delivered through the ESES City Region Deal and Community Benefits click here.