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I’ve spent years watching high streets change — some vibrancy lost to online giants and out-of-town developments, some regained through grassroots energy. Lately, one policy approach has struck me as particularly promising for councils that want to protect jobs on the high street: community wealth building (CWB). It’s not a silver bullet, but when councils use CWB strategically, they can channel public spending, procurement, land use and support for local enterprise to keep jobs rooted in town centres.
What exactly is community wealth building?
In plain terms, community wealth building is a set of practical tactics that aim to keep wealth circulating locally rather than leaking out to distant shareholders. It includes things like local procurement policies, support for co-operatives and social enterprises, use of council-owned land to create affordable workspace, and encouraging local ownership of key services. I like to think of it as turning the levers the public sector already has — spending, land, and convening power — towards keeping jobs and revenues in the local economy.
Why is this relevant to high street jobs?
High streets are about more than shops: they’re clusters of employment, social interaction and civic identity. When a bakery, a barber, a bookshop or a small manufacturer closes, the job losses are obvious, but so are the multiplier effects — fewer shoppers, lower footfall, less demand for nearby services. CWB targets the root of that leakage by supporting businesses and models that are likely to spend and hire locally.
How councils can start: practical levers
Here are practical steps I’ve seen work in the field — straightforward, often low-cost, and replicable across UK towns.
- Local procurement clauses: Rewriting procurement criteria to prioritise local suppliers or require social value commitments can shift real money to local firms. Even small percentages of council procurement set aside or weighted for local impact can sustain dozens of jobs.
- Business rates and rents: Councils can use discretionary rate reliefs and flexible leasing for council-owned properties to lower operating costs for independent retailers and start-ups.
- Affordable workspace on council land: Rather than selling assets to national developers, councils can create long-term affordable units for makers, creative industries and micro-manufacturers — sectors that create local jobs.
- Support for co-ops and mutuals: Councils can provide seed funding, business support and access to procurement pipelines for worker co-ops and social enterprises, which are more likely to reinvest profits locally.
- Anchor institution coordination: Use hospitals, universities and housing associations as “anchors” to coordinate local purchasing strategies.
- Training linked to local demand: Invest in vocational training aligned to local employers’ needs so local people can fill jobs created or sustained on the high street.
Examples that illustrate impact
Sheffield, Preston and Glasgow have piloted parts of this playbook with measurable benefits: more local suppliers on council contracts, new co-operative start-ups, and repurposed town-centre buildings. I’m not talking about gimmicks — these initiatives require persistent policy choices. But they show how tens of millions in public spend, redirected thoughtfully, can become a stable base for hundreds of jobs.
| Action | Likely short-term impact | Likely medium-term impact |
|---|---|---|
| Local procurement weighting | Immediate contracts for SMEs | Business growth and job retention |
| Affordable workspace provision | Lower startup costs | New micro-manufacturing & creative jobs |
| Support for co-ops | Seed employment opportunities | Greater local reinvestment |
Common questions and tough trade-offs
Councils face real constraints. I’m often asked how to justify measures that could be framed as “anti-competition” or that reduce short-term capital receipts from asset sales. Here’s how I’d answer the most common objections:
- Won’t prioritising local suppliers increase costs? Sometimes — but the social value of local employment, reduced travel, and stronger local supply chains often offset higher unit prices. Life-cycle and social-value procurement models make that visible in decision-making.
- What about EU procurement rules or UK procurement law? You can design procurement criteria around quality, social value and community benefit without breaching competition law. Many councils already include social value scoring.
- Is this just short-term redistribution? No — when done well, CWB builds capacity: firms grow, workers gain skills, and local supply chains develop. The aim is structural change, not temporary relief.
How to measure success
Good metrics matter. I encourage councils to track:
- Percentage of procurement spend kept within a specified local radius
- Number of local suppliers newly contracted
- Job creation and retention figures linked to supported businesses
- Footfall and vacancy rates on the high street
- New business formation and survival rates for co-ops/social enterprises
These measures help link policy choices to outcomes and show whether public money is translating into local livelihoods.
Practical starter projects for councils with limited budgets
You don’t need a huge budget to begin. Small pilot projects can build momentum and evidence.
- Local supplier directory and meet-the-buyer events: Low-cost, high-impact way to connect SMEs to council contracts.
- Flexible short-term pop-up leases: Turn vacant units into incubators for local retail or creative businesses — often funded through modest business improvement budgets.
- Co-design a procurement social value clause: Engage civil society, unions and businesses to define what “local benefit” looks like in your area.
Where I see the biggest potential
In towns where the council acts not as a passive landlord or purchaser but as a patient investor and convenor, high streets can reinvent themselves. That means prioritising local jobs over maximum short-term income, and it means using every lever — procurement, planning, land assets, and enterprise support — in a coordinated strategy. The pay-off is resilient local economies where people can afford to work and live, and where the high street remains a source of jobs and community life.
It won’t happen overnight. But as councils rethink their role in the economy, community wealth building offers a practical, evidence-based route to protecting and creating high street jobs that benefit residents, not distant shareholders.
