Sinn Féin has today launched its ambitious proposals around Community Wealth Building (CWB) – a powerful alternative model to economic development.
CWB seeks to leverage existing local and regional resources to provide workers, families and communities with greater control over their own economic development.
The model of CWB has proven to be very successful in regions such as Preston in England, North Ayrshire in Scotland and Cleveland in the United States.
The proposal was launched by Deputies Brian Stanley, Mairead Farrell, Louise O’Reilly and Senator Paul Gavan.
Speaking at the launch, Teachta Stanley said:
“The reality is that the current economic model in Ireland isn’t meeting the needs of workers, families and communities across the island.
“We need to be bold in setting out a new approach to the economy where we have balanced economic development and wealth is retained in our towns and counties rather than being extracted.
“CWB has the potential to deliver such fundamental change to how we view wealth and how we build a fairer society.
“There are five key pillars to our CWB proposal:
- Make financial power work for people and local towns by retaining as much of that wealth as we can through local supply chains and targeted procurement contracts.
- Work with key institutions (commercial, public and semi-state) to create local employment and set a standard for high quality, sustainable jobs.
- Utilise all land and assets in our communities to generate wealth and resources for the people who live there.
- Develop an inclusive economy with social forms of ownership like co-operatives.
- Reduce our carbon footprint by establishing shorter supply chains and greater local employment.”
Teachta Farrell said:
“CWB is about working in partnership with communities and businesses to build a more resilient economy that works for local people, which supports fair work, and uses land in the region for the benefit of the people that live there.
“The traditional economic development model of Foreign Direct Investment has shown itself to have limited benefits, our proposal is about developing indigenous assets in such a way that wealth is added to our communities, not extracted.
“We believe that CWB has the potential to maximise the unleashed potential of every village, town and community in Ireland.
“Sinn Féin is now calling on all county councils across the country to endorse the model of Community Wealth Building and incorporate it into their Local Economic Community Plans.”
