Thread by @joecguinan

On October 27, the Independent Advisory Panel on Community Wealth Building to the Minister for Communities @CommunitiesNI delivered its report, ‘Recommendations to Advance Community Wealth Building in Northern Ireland’. communities-ni.gov.uk/news/hargey-we…

The report sets out a comprehensive framework for advancing #CommunityWealthBuilding and building a more democratic, just, inclusive, and sustainable economy for all communities in Northern Ireland, on the basis of a whole-of-government approach. There are 26 key recommendations:

Plural Ownership:
1. Adopt, deliver, and resource a social economy strategy for Northern Ireland
2. Establish a CWB/social enterprise fund
3. Review and realign existing financial levers to support the social economy

4. Explore the potential for cooperatives, employee ownership, and worker buyouts
5. Expand democratic ownership, control, and participation in the public sector through democratisation of public services and innovative public enterprise models

6. Experiment with spatial interventions within an area-based framework

Locally Rooted Finance:
7. Explore the potential for a public investment bank as an intermediary for social and green lending
8. Establish a CWB Pilot Programme Fund

9. Conduct an audit of underutilised financial instruments and repurpose them for CWB ends
10. Strengthen the role of community finance as a key partner to distribute and diversify funding and financing away from government

11. Embed participatory budgeting practices across local authorities in Northern Ireland

Fair Employment and Just Labour Markets:
12. Deploy the available levers of Government and public anchor institutions in support of fair pay and working conditions

13. Harness the power of collective bargaining for social and economic benefit
14. Put the Real Living Wage on a statutory basis
15. Integrate CWB into Labour Market Partnerships and efforts to broaden access to employment

16. Labour market planning to meet the needs of the future through a comprehensive industrial strategy

Socially Productive Use of Land and Property:
17. Prepare a new Community Asset Transfer Delivery Framework based on comprehensive legislation to ensure effective and efficient community asset transfer across public bodies in Northern Ireland

18. Develop a capital and revenue-based funding programme to support asset transfer
19. Develop a dedicated programme on Community-led Housing
20. Evaluate the public sector asset register for the potential for community asset transfer

21. Strengthen skills across the public and community sector

Social Commissioning, Sourcing, and Procurement of Goods and Services:
22. Develop a Public Sector Transformation Academy for Northern Ireland

23. Develop a robust system for the consistent recording, monitoring, and policing of social value outcomes
24. Deliver social value through working in partnership
25. Introduce a Social Value Act and/or make direct changes to procurement guidance

Governance and Enabling Infrastructure for Long-Term CWB:
26. Create, staff, and resource a cross- departmental CWB Unit within the Northern Ireland Executive to promote, embed, and coordinate CWB across government

These recommendations present a mix of both “quick wins”—things that are actionable in the short term for immediate benefit, while inspiring and showing the art of the possible—as well as bold forward thinking to position Northern Ireland as a leader in Community Wealth Building.

At this moment of growing crisis, it is imperative that public investment and interventions work harder, go deeper, and recirculate further for the benefit of all residents while building the just and resilient economy necessary to prevent these kinds of shocks in the future.

We members of the independent panel believe that #CommunityWealthBuilding is the best way to do that, and this report offers our best thinking on the steps that the Northern Ireland Executive can take to support CWB from the top down and empower implementation from the bottom-up.

Minister @CommunitiesNI @DeirdreHargey's encouraging response to the report of the independent panel can be found here: communities-ni.gov.uk/news/hargey-we…

The makeup and terms of reference of the Minister's Advisory Panel on Community Wealth Building in Northern Ireland can be found here: communities-ni.gov.uk/articles/commu…

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And here are my remarks at the launch of the recommendations, speaking on behalf of the independent Minister’s Advisory Panel: democracycollaborative.org/blog/remarks-l…