13.Section 5 creates a new duty which is placed on local authorities and relevant public bodies. The relevant public bodies are listed in subsection (16), and they are defined in relation to local authority areas. So in each local authority area, a public body listed in subsection (16) will only be subject to the duty in subsection (1) to the extent that the body operates within the area. Subsection (17) allows the Scottish Ministers to make regulations to add bodies to the list, or remove them, or change the descriptions of bodies on the list. Such regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure.
14.Subsection (1) requires each local authority, working in partnership with the relevant public bodies in the area of that local authority, to prepare a community wealth building action plan, within 3 years of section 5 coming into force. Subsection (2) then places responsibility on the local authority to publish the action plan as soon as reasonably practicable after it has been prepared. Subsection (3) gives the Scottish Ministers the power to make regulations setting out further detail about the format in which the plan is to be published. Such regulations will be subject to the affirmative procedure.
15.Subsection (5) explains that a local authority and the relevant public bodies in the area of that local authority are referred to together as a community wealth building partnership, when carrying out the duties or powers placed on them or given to them under the Act. They can each be referred to individually as a community wealth building partner.
16.Subsection (6) provides that each action plan must set out things which the community wealth building partnership is doing, or will do, to ensure that more wealth is created within the area for that local authority, and that more of the wealth that is created in, or comes into, the area stays in the area. Subsection (7) provides some examples of the kinds of actions that the community wealth building partnership might include in the action plan. This list is non-exhaustive, and includes, at paragraph (k), any other measures that the partnership consider appropriate. So the plan might include actions which are not included in this list. It also need not include every action on the list.
17.Subsection (8) requires that the action plan set an indicative target in relation to the money spent or to be spent under public contracts which any of the individual community wealth building partners enter into. The target should specify what percentage of that spend should go to local economic operators. Economic operators are defined in section 13 of the Act as being persons offering the execution of works, the supply of products or the provision of services on the market. Public contracts are defined in subsection (15) as being contracts for pecuniary interest – that is, financial value – entered into in writing between an economic operator and a community wealth building partner for the execution of work, the supply of products, or the provision of services.
18.Subsection (9)(a) requires that each community wealth building plan set out how the partnership intends to measure or assess progress made in implementing the measures contained in the plan. The plan must include indicators against which that measurement or assessment is to be tracked. Paragraph (b) allows, but does not require, for community wealth building plans to also set targets in relation to the implementation of measures.
19.Subsection (10) provides some examples of the kind of indicators against which progress is to be measured which community wealth building partnerships might include in the plan. The list is indicative, and so not every indicator needs to be included. The list is also not exhaustive, and includes, at paragraph (g), other indicators that the partnership considers appropriate. So the plan might include indicators which are not on the list.
20.Subsection (11) requires community wealth building partnerships to consider how the use, or sale, of common good land could be used to support the goals of community wealth building set out in the Act.
21.Subsection (12) places a duty on local authorities, when they are contributing to the creation of an action plan, to consult persons that the local authority thinks are likely to be directly affected by the action plan. It also requires the local authority to consult such persons as it considers to be representative of the interests of the community in general, businesses, the third sector, and social enterprises. Subsection (13) requires the local authority to publish a report setting out the details of the consultation process carried out in relation to the plan, and how the views which were given as part of that process were subsequently incorporated into the plan. The report is to be published as soon as reasonably practicable after the action plan has been published.
22.Subsection (14) requires both local authorities and the relevant public bodies for the area of the local authority to have due regard to guidance about action plans which is published by the Scottish Ministers under section 9(1)(a) of the Act.
The Act Commentary on provisions Section 5 – community wealth building action plan