Scottish Men’s Sheds Association are calling for a national health strategy that would recognise the specific health needs of men and boys to tackle inequality and reduce preventable deaths. The campaign has gained over 1000 signatures and reinforces the need for resourced community led preventable solutions.
Scottish Men’s Sheds Association are calling for a national health strategy that would recognise the specific health needs of men and boys to tackle inequality and reduce preventable deaths. The campaign has gained over 1000 signatures and reinforces the need for resourced community led preventable solutions.
A new campaign has been launched to support the people of Scotland to get a fair share of the country’s renewable energy wealth. The campaign will focus on how Scotland can build an energy system that brings more wealth to the country and communities. Our Power Scotland are calling on the next Scottish Government to guarantee public ownership locally and …
A new campaign has been launched to support the people of Scotland to get a fair share of the country’s renewable energy wealth. The campaign will focus on how Scotland can build an energy system that brings more wealth to the country and communities. Our Power Scotland are calling on the next Scottish Government to guarantee public ownership locally and nationally and for greater public investment to build offshore wind manufacturing.
The Scottish Government and COSLA have published the Democracy Matters: A Routemap to Reform. The document outlines both key proposals for empowering communities as well as a proposed approach for further formulation and implementation moving forwards. Alongside this, the Minister for Public Finance, Ivan McKee MSP and the COSLA presidential team have released a joint statement reaffirming shared commitment to …
The Scottish Government and COSLA have published the Democracy Matters: A Routemap to Reform. The document outlines both key proposals for empowering communities as well as a proposed approach for further formulation and implementation moving forwards. Alongside this, the Minister for Public Finance, Ivan McKee MSP and the COSLA presidential team have released a joint statement reaffirming shared commitment to empowering communities, improving participation, and ensuring that local voices have a stronger role in shaping local and national priorities. An update on the development of Single Authority Models in Orkney, Argyll and Bute and the Western Isles has been published in parallel.
As a coalition, the Scottish Community Alliance are committed to work with partners to develop local democracy that places communities are the forefront of decision making. Our next steps will be to work with our members to produce a SCA blueprint.
Democratic Finance Scotland has launched its latest report, A Decade of Community Shares in Scotland, contributing to over a decade of Community Wealth Building. The programme which is part of Development Trust Association Scotland (DTAS), supports communities across Scotland through democratic models like community shares, bonds and one-off community lotteries
Democratic Finance Scotland has launched its latest report, A Decade of Community Shares in Scotland, contributing to over a decade of Community Wealth Building. The programme which is part of Development Trust Association Scotland (DTAS), supports communities across Scotland through democratic models like community shares, bonds and one-off community lotteries
Many from across Scotland’s community sector will have been saddened recently to learn of the sudden death of former civil servant Alasdair McKinlay.
Many from across Scotland’s community sector will have been saddened recently to learn of the sudden death of former civil servant Alasdair McKinlay. While most civil servants tend to move around different departments over the course of their careers, Alasdair proved a notable exception to the rule.
In the late 1990s, the then Scottish Executive funded a £1million training and development programme for the newly-announced Social Inclusion Partnerships, which became known as Working Together Learning Together. It was delivered by SCDC, Glasgow University, SCVO, the Poverty Alliance and Community Learning Scotland. It was the first programme of its kind in Scotland and it was commissioned by Alasdair, who was a hands-on contributor throughout, and who worked with great enthusiasm to help achieve positive outcomes for local community participants. The key themes of the programme were action on poverty, community participation and effective partnership.
Alasdair, already bitten by the ‘community bug’, went on to work for the long departed but not quite forgotten Communities Scotland. Always a believer in the value of getting out and about to see at first-hand what made Scotland’s communities tick, he was forever encouraging colleagues and inviting Ministers to join him on his many visits. That singular approach to his work marked him out as a particularly effective public servant and made a huge impact in changing how the community sector was perceived within the Scottish Government.
But, of course, he did much, much more. He led on what was effectively the Scottish Government’s first published strategy for community empowerment – the 2009 Community Empowerment Action Plan. He introduced the concept of community asset transfer to Scotland and was responsible for delivering the landmark 2015 Community Empowerment legislation. The very existence of Scotland’s internationally regarded National Standards for Community Engagement is in large part down to Alasdair’s commitment to see them delivered. Up until the end of his career he remained committed to the principles of community led action and local governance.
If his achievements as a public servant are worthy of huge recognition, it will be his qualities as a human being and as a friend to many that he will be most fondly remembered. He was often challenging, sometimes forensically so, but always encouraging. On a personal basis he was thoughtful, sensitive and generous to a fault.
Over a career there are people that you remember with particular affection for the contribution they make and how they go about it. Alasdair McKinlay is one of those people. He will be sadly missed by many of his colleagues in the community and voluntary sector.
Co-signatories
Fiona Garven, Retired Director, SCDC
Angus Hardie, Retired Director, Scottish Community Alliance
Stewart Murdoch, Retired Chair, SCDC, Retired Treasurer IACD
Brendan Rooney, Healthy’n’Happy Community Development Trust and Scottish Communities for Health and Wellbeing
Local People Leading: A Personal Reflection from the Chair
March 3, 2026
Kim Wallace, Chair
Scottish Community Alliance
Last week, I had the privilege of opening and closing our Local People Leading event at the Scottish Parliament as Chair of the Scottish Community Alliance.
Standing in that building – a place where national decisions are made – and looking out at a room full of community leaders, activists, practitioners, MSPs, funders and civil servants, I felt two things very strongly:
Pride.
And real pressure.
Pride in the extraordinary work happening in communities across Scotland – much of it unseen, often under-resourced, but transformative nonetheless.
And pressure – the weight of knowing this mattered. Pressure to honour the leadership in the room. Pressure to reflect both the urgency and the opportunity in front of us. Pressure to get it right – not just in tone, but in substance.
The Context We’re Working In
I began the day by acknowledging the wider climate we’re operating in.
Across the world – and here in the UK – we are seeing rights under pressure. Disabled people facing rollbacks. LGBTQ+ communities experiencing hostility. Racism on the rise. Violence against women and girls – and misogyny – becoming more visible and organised.
In that context, the role of the community sector is not neutral.
Community organisations are often the first place people turn when they feel excluded, targeted or unheard. They create belonging. They protect dignity. They amplify voices that power overlooks.
So, when we say Local People Leading, we must mean all local people.
Equity, inclusion and diversity are not optional extras. They are the foundation of resilient communities. If we are serious about redesigning systems around communities, those systems must work first and foremost for those pushed furthest to the margins.
Communities are strongest when everyone belongs.
We’ve Seen What Communities Can Do
We have lived through a global pandemic. We are still living through a cost-of-living crisis that is stretching families, volunteers, staff and organisations to breaking point.
And when Covid hit – when systems faltered – it was community organisations that stepped up first.
Food hubs appeared overnight. Neighbours checked on isolated and vulnerable people. Mutual aid groups became lifelines. Community anchor organisations became emergency response centres.
Not because it was written into a contract.
Not because it was mandated.
But because communities don’t wait to be told to care.
That spirit is still here – but it’s tired. It’s under-resourced. And it deserves better backing.
We’ve Been Having This Conversation for a Long Time
More than ten years ago, we hosted a community conference in this same Parliament building. The programme spoke about community ownership, community wellbeing, local democracy, climate action and community wealth.
Here we are in 2026 – still talking about many of the same ambitions.
That tells me two things:
First, communities were right then.
Second, change has been too slow.
While communities have evolved, innovated and professionalised, systems and funding models have not kept pace. We still see short-term funding cycles. Still fragmented decision-making. Still power sitting too far from the places it affects.
That gap – between what communities can do and what systems allow – is where frustration lives.
So I was clear: this event could not just be another conversation. It had to be about shifting the terms of the debate.
From “how do communities cope?”
To “how do we redesign systems around communities?”
From projects and pilots.
To permanence.
A Significant Moment for Scotland
As we closed the day, I reflected on something significant that happened just a week before our gathering: the passing of Community Wealth Building legislation.
Legislation can sometimes feel distant from lived reality. But this one matters.
Because where wealth is generated – and where it stays – shapes everything: jobs, local services, inequality, opportunity, wellbeing and ultimately the health of our democracy.
For years, communities have been making this case in practice. Keeping assets in local hands. Building community enterprises. Creating fair work. Reinvesting surpluses locally. Designing economies that serve people and planet – not the other way around.
Now that thinking is recognised in law.
But I was honest with the room: passing legislation is the easy part. Implementation is where the real work begins.
The World Is Watching
Scotland is not having this conversation in isolation. Internationally, governments and movements are looking here and asking:
Can a small country redesign its economy to be fairer, greener and more democratic?
Can it move wealth, land and decision-making closer to communities?
Can it prove that economic transformation and community empowerment go hand in hand?
That is the test in front of us.
Legislation alone does not build community wealth. People do.
Practitioners do.
Local authorities do.
Anchor institutions do.
Funders do.
National government does.
And communities – most of all – do.
If we get this right, community wealth building won’t simply be a policy programme. It will be a generational shift.
A shift where local economies serve local people.
Where assets are stewarded for long-term community benefit.
Where climate transition creates shared prosperity.
Where young people see futures in the places they grow up.
Where wealth circulates instead of extracting.
But that will only happen if we match the ambition of the legislation with the ambition of implementation.
We must move from rhetoric to resource.
From commitment to accountability.
From pilots to permanence.
What I Asked People to Take With Them
As I brought the day to a close, I offered three reflections.
First – pride.
The resilience, creativity and leadership we see in Scotland’s communities is extraordinary. We should say that more often.
Second – urgency.
We cannot afford another decade where community ambition outpaces system change.
And third -responsibility.
With global attention comes accountability. If the world is watching Scotland on community wealth building, we must show we are serious about delivering lasting economic change – not cosmetic change, not short-term change, but deep, structural transformation.
I hope those who joined us left with three things:
New relationships.
Renewed confidence.
And a shared determination to turn legislative progress into lived reality.
Because local people are not waiting for permission to lead.
Invest in, don’t reinvent, Scotland’s community wealth building movement
January 20, 2026
The Community Wealth Building Bill has transformative potential, but its real test will be whether it empowers the people already leading the way.
By Jill Keegan, Partnerships Manager, Scottish Community Alliance
At the end of last year the Scottish Parliament took an historic step by agreeing to the general principles of the Community Wealth Building Bill – an act that promises to rewire Scotland’s economy, ensuring that the wealth created in our communities stays in our communities, empowering local people to make their local economies work for them.
In the Stage 1 debate, MSPs from across the political spectrum recognised both the potential of this Bill and its necessity.
Richard Leonard MSP said: “we should have local economies where far more power rests in the hands of local workers and local communities.. We should have a redistribution of wealth and power.” While Jamie Greene MSP emphasised the Bill “must be meaningful, and it must deliver its intended purpose of improving the wealth of communities across the country.”
As the Bill progresses it presents a vital opportunity, but for it to be truly transformative it must empower the people and organisations already leading the way. As Willie Coffey MSP remarked, the “key to success” is simple: “work with local people to help them to progress their vision” “instead of driving the process from the top down”.
This is crucial. If this Bill becomes legislation in 2026, the real test will be whether it provides a lever for devolved decision making and investment to the local level. Public bodies should be partners, not just top-down directors, enabling the community anchors who have the trust and knowledge to deliver lasting change.
Daniel Johnson MSP of the Economy, Business and Fair Work Committee cited our evidence, stating: “although community lies at the heart of the concept of community wealth building, the bill makes no reference to the community groups, third sector groups or private sector representatives in the partnerships.”
This must change for the Bill to be effective in building on the viable community wealth building approaches that communities are already putting into practice.
The evidence is already here
Across Scotland, communities are already leading the way on building sustainable community wealth – they are proving what is possible when local people have the tools and trust to act.
To help fill in the picture of what’s already happening on the ground, in Autumn 2025 we travelled the breadth of Scotland with storytellers from Greater Community Media, to tell the stories of how community organisations are shaping community wealth building in Scotland:
In Glenfarg, a community rebuilt its bus service after commercial operators withdrew, reconnecting residents, and becoming a catalyst for wider regeneration.
On Tiree, a community-owned turbine is powering investment into essential infrastructure, services, new homes and local businesses.
In Govanhill, a community-led newsroom is showing how owning your own story is the first step to building community wealth, and strengthens local decision-making.
In Midlothian, MAEDT is feeding the community’s soul through a community pantry, café, and a derelict bowling green transformed into a thriving community garden, building local food security, skills and resilience.
These examples are not isolated anecdotes. They are a snapshot of the sophisticated, resilient, and beautifully diverse community sector that is holding Scotland together.
These organisations are the community anchors providing their communities with a fixed point to navigate from when it is most needed. And while each organisation has a different role in their communities, they are all vitally interconnected as the community sector.
Investment, not reinvention
The government’s role is not to reinvent this movement, but to invest in it.
Organisations like these should be at the forefront of shaping the future of community wealth building, because it is already their mission- building in the gaps where there is need, with limited resources they pull together, and achieve miracles.
Our sector could provide a blueprint for the future if Scotland is serious about moving to a wellbeing economy. For this to be realised, community wealth building needs to become a consistent cross-cutting priority across government.
To truly mirror the coordinated ecosystem of national networks and intermediaries representing Scotland’s diverse community sector, its principles must be built into economic development, planning, health, food systems, transport and climate policy. Their collective strength lies in deep local knowledge, shared learning and the ability to scale practical solutions. They provide a ready-made infrastructure that could deliver sustainable community wealth equitably and effectively.
Local People Leading
In February the Scottish Community Alliance will host our Local People Leading, a national parliamentary event bringing our diverse sector together under one roof. It is a rare opportunity for the people running these community organisations to sit directly with the decision-makers shaping their future.
From deep dives into funding models that ensure natural capital assets deliver long-term benefits to the people of Scotland, to planning systems that put biodiversity and communities first, this event will lay out the priorities of what matters locally, and spotlight the collective contributions that are leading local democracy and community wealth building agendas.
A challenge for 2026
As the Bill progresses through Stage 2 and we look toward the 2026 election, the dial must shift.
Communities are tired of surviving on short-term project grants while delivering long-term essential services. It stifles their potential, and stretches their resilience. Sharon Hill from MAEDT asks: “Treat us the same way we treat our community. Trust us. Respect us and support us, but trust us to do what we do.”
Our series This is Community Wealth Buildingmakes clear what’s possible when you combine care with persistence – that with trust and investment, communities can genuinely transform their futures for the common good.
To turn this legislation into reality, we need a system that builds on and invests in the community wealth building communities across Scotland are already pioneering. We need multi-year funding, genuine partnerships, and a transfer of power.
Communities know that wealth is more than money – it is wellbeing, fairness, pride and opportunity. They have built the foundations. Now, decision makers must help them build the rest.
Read more from our series This is Community Wealth Building and what we’re calling for to support Community Wealth Building across Scotland.
Reclaiming the narrative: building community wealth with community media
January 14, 2026
In one of Glasgow’s most diverse neighbourhoods, a community-led magazine is proving that owning your own story is the first step to building community wealth.
By Lucas Batt
The door to the shop at 82 Bowman Street in Glasgow’s Southside doesn’t stay closed for long. Just off the busy thoroughfare in Govanhill sits a little bright yellow shop front, gleaming like sunshine against the grey Glasgow sky. Proudly emblazoned above the door is ‘The Community Newsroom’. It is the first of its kind in the country.
Beneath is inscribed an invitation, and statement of intent: ‘Everybody has a story, what’s yours?’
This is home to community magazine Greater Govanhill. Inside, the atmosphere is less like a corporate office and more like a bustling village square. On any given Tuesday, you might find a local historian scanning archives, a group of young Roma people learning photography, and people dropping in and heading out to tell the stories of Govanhill.
This is how news is made in Govanhill now. Not extracted by journalists parachuting in from distant newsrooms, but created by people who live here, for people who live here. The door is always open. Anyone can walk in with a story, pitch an idea, or simply be part of the conversation.
But for years, that wasn’t the story being told about Govanhill.
Reclaiming the narrative
“When I moved to Govanhill in 2018 I was immediately struck by the disconnect between the way Govanhill is often described in the media compared to the reality of actually living here” says Rhiannon Davies, founder of Greater Govanhill magazine.
“It was often described in quite negative terms, but what I found was a really vibrant, friendly community, with loads of great projects, creativity, and people making stuff happen.”
Rhiannon wanted to shift that narrative. She wanted to enable the people of Govanhill to tell their stories in their own words, to find genuine solutions to challenges the area was facing, and for neighbours to feel connected enough to create change together.
With a background in journalism, events and community development, she had the idea of setting up a community magazine. But she wanted this to be community-led. So in this neighbourhood that speaks 88 different languages, she started listening.
For a year Rhiannon went to events, cafés, local businesses, bus stops, community groups – anywhere where she could go and speak to local people, asking a simple but powerful question: What do you need to know?
Those hundreds of conversations fed into creating Greater Govanhill, a social enterprise and a community magazine rooted in what people actually wanted, rather than what she thought they needed. It is a radical new approach to local news, taking a solutions-focused and community-centred approach to storytelling as a vehicle for community development.
More than a magazine
Those conversations became the blueprint for Greater Govanhill’s approach. When it launched in 2020, people saw their ideas reflected back. “They actually listened to us,” became a common refrain.
Since launching, Greater Govanhill has published more than 20 editions of its free, high quality magazine, racking up numerous national awards. The bi-monthly magazine reaches an estimated 12,000 readers through 4,000 printed copies distributed by volunteers. There’s a website with no paywall, a radio show, award-winning podcasts, and now this physical newsroom space where they host events and hold the door open for anyone with a question or a story.
What Greater Govanhill does might look like journalism, but it functions more like social infrastructure.
“I wanted to create something that was beautiful, that made people feel proud when they saw it, that made people feel like they deserve to have something of this quality,” Rhiannon explains.
“People tell me they keep all the issues. They have them on their coffee tables, on their bookshelves. They show visitors, or send them to family back home, or to people who used to live here and moved away.”
Each bi-monthly issue is co-created with local community members, many of whom have no previous writing experience. To enable this, the organisation provides community reporter training for marginalised groups, which enables them not just to tell stories in their own words, but equips them with confidence, tools, and connections they need to make change happen.
Over 150 people contributed to the magazine in 2022 alone, contributing writing, editing, illustrations and photographs. Volunteers deliver the 4,000 copies of each edition. The majority of contributors were first-time published writers, including young Roma people, Muslim women, LGBTQ+ residents, refugees, asylum seekers, and people from 13 different countries aged between 12 and 89.
“We’re not afraid to do things that journalists don’t usually do. We recognise that the journalist isn’t the person with all the answers” says Rhiannon, “we need more voices, and more diversity in the media, so we bring them in.”
Building community wealth through storytelling
This is how community media builds community wealth. It is reclaiming the narrative of the area, making people feel proud of where they live, making people feel more connected to each other and providing solutions-focused approaches to local issues. Almost all advertisers are local businesses and non-profits. And it is building the skills and confidence of individual contributors.
A young photographer with disabilities whose work was featured gained national exposure, grew in confidence, and secured a college place. A contributor with autism told the team that helping edit the magazine gave him the confidence to pitch a successful book project to a publisher. Eight new volunteers signed up at a community garden after seeing it featured. Through Greater Govanhill’s community reporter training, a young Muslim woman found her voice and decided she wanted to be a journalist, going on to secure an apprenticeship with the BBC and is now working as a journalist.
One reader credits the magazine with saving her life after learning about support for dealing with a problem landlord. Another wrote: “The magazine gave me an insight into many of these unknowns and reminded me that issues we face are being met with love, community spirit and a whole host of amazing people.”
Through telling the stories of the community, the magazine develops empathy and understanding between the people who live there. Neighbours increasingly recognise each other on the street, no longer as strangers, but as people with rich and complex histories, and shared interests and challenges. As one reader told Rhiannon’s team during lockdown: “Reading the magazine makes me feel more connected to both my neighbours and my neighbourhood”.
The power of the network
Creating something like Greater Govanhill is not easy. Advertising revenue for local news has all but collapsed, and funding is scarce, often only for short-term projects.
Seeing that there were other independent community-based publications across Scotland with shared challenges and learnings they could share, Rhiannon set up The Scottish Beacon in 2023. It is a collaborative network of 25 independent, community-based publications stretching from Shetland to Dumfries. Through it they provide peer support, sharing ideas, learnings, and skills, but also it is a platform for the publications to collaborate.
“When one village hall closes in one community that’s a local story, but if it’s happening in 10 communities, there’s a bigger story here. The idea for The Scottish Beacon is to turn local stories into national influence” says Rhiannon.
No two outlets are the same in the Scottish Beacon. Some have small paid teams while others are entirely volunteer-run. Some operate as non-profits while others are sole traders, some publish in print while others are entirely digital. What unites all these publications is that they are owned and run locally, meaning decisions about what matters, whose voices are heard and how stories are told remain rooted in the community itself.
For members, the value is clear. Julian Calvert, editor of Scottish Beacon member The Lochside Press, said: “The Scottish Beacon project helps in showing that many of the issues we face here – ranging from energy to local democracy – are not just local, but part of a pattern across Scotland, helping us to find common cause with communities ranging from Galloway to Shetland.”
Building the support infrastructure
The success of Greater Govanhill and The Scottish Beacon proved a point: communities can run their own media and communities can be strengthened through it. But they shouldn’t have to figure it out from scratch.
Recognising the need to support these community pioneers, and the opportunity of spreading the models being developed, in 2025 Rhiannon co-founded Greater Community Media. It supports people to launch community-led media projects, help existing news organisations to become more community-centred, and enables non-media organisations to use approaches like participatory storytelling and training community reporters.
It is dedicated to supporting the development of community-centred media. This approach puts listening, care, connection, and uplifting marginalised voices at its heart. It uses media as a tool to better connect and inform people, strengthening communities and enabling them to create change together. It invests in people’s capacity to tell their own stories, and builds their confidence and skills.
There are significant barriers for people wanting to set up or sustain community media organisations, with founders often facing isolation, lack confidence and skills, encountering high financial risk, and lack support networks. But Greater Govanhill and others in the Scottish Beacon show models that can be learned from and replicated. Greater Community Media exists to lower these barriers, and provide the support founders need.
Narrative power
Community Wealth Building is often associated with physical assets like land, buildings, and energy. But information and narrative power are assets too. Who gets to define local priorities, how problems are framed, and which stories gain visibility all shape what gets decided and done in communities. But when communities have more say over what stories are told, and feel better understood and connected to the people around them, they are better positioned to organise, to collaborate, and act on the things affecting their lives.
Community-centred media is a practical example of Community Wealth Building in action. It shows how by listening to people, responding to those needs, telling stories rooted in empathy, and reporting rooted in solutions, media builds the strength of a community. There is wealth in increased community pride and understanding, and when a community reclaims its voice and its narrative, it reclaims its destiny.
Community wealth building needs a platform for community voices to shape that conversation and decision-making. Greater Govanhill, The Scottish Beacon, and Greater Community Media are building the capacity for that – one story, one neighbourhood, and one network at a time.
The door is open. The stories are waiting to be told.
Read more from our series This is Community Wealth Building and what we’re calling for to support Community Wealth Building across Scotland.
SURF’s Manifesto for Regeneration – Empowering People, Places, and Policy sets out a suite of key regeneration priorities for the next Scottish Parliament.
SURF’s Manifesto for Regeneration – Empowering People, Places, and Policy sets out a suite of key regeneration priorities for the next Scottish Parliament.
Their manifesto is centred around four core themes, which emerged during engagement and consultation phase. They are:
Resource Local Democracy
Deliver Affordable Housing
Commit to Fair Funding
Invest in Public Transport
These themes cut across all aspects of community led regeneration. That’s why, from 2026 to 2031, SURF will be asking Members of the Scottish Parliament how they are delivering on these priorities to create a more equal and prosperous Scotland.
The art of ownership: how North Edinburgh Arts is building community wealth
A landmark community-owned arts centre in the north of Edinburgh is using culture to build community wealth.
Reporting by Charlie Ellis
Edited by Lucas Batt, Greater Community Media
Edinburgh is known as a global capital of culture. But three miles north of the city centre in Muirhouse, the story has often been one of exclusion. Until now.
Walk into the brand new MacMillan Hub in the heart of Muirhouse and you will sense the ambitious cultural revolution taking root. There, North Edinburgh Arts (NEA) is providing far more than a community centre. Operating a third of this £15m civic landmark they unite everything from art, dance, and music to textiles, woodwork, and yoga.
The facility houses a 96-seat theatre, a busy 72-seat café, and a wealth of creative spaces – including artist studios, wood workshops, and a music studio. The building also features a hot-desk mezzanine and a third-floor greenhouse, seeding stock for half-acre community garden.
The hub is a testament to community ambition. The beating heart of this complex is owned and operated by the community. NEA, a locally-led charity, has operated here for 20 years, but their move into this purpose-built facility represents a seismic shift. It is a transition from tenants to landlords; from recipients of regeneration to the architects of it.
The community vision
In 2017, North Edinburgh Arts was at a crossroads. They had served the communities of Muirhouse, Granton and Pilton for 20 years, attracting 40,000 visits a year to their creative workshops and theatre. But they were tenants on Council-owned land in a building that was bursting at the seams.
For a community organisation, this was a moment of acute vulnerability. A regeneration plan for the area had been under development since 2008. The risk was real: their arts centre could be squeezed into a smaller space, or lost entirely, if not integrated into the new development.
NEA saw this vulnerability as an opportunity. They proposed a radical integration, putting the community at the centre of the new plans. They launched a Community Asset Transfer to buy their building and the supporting land, and gained overwhelming local support.
Then, they challenged the design itself. NEA appointed their own visionary architects to reimagine their future. Determined to put the community at the heart of the new plans, they worked with the council to develop a proposal that integrated the arts centre into a new town square, alongside a new library, learning and skills hub, and early years centre.
In a validation of their local ambition, the Council bought into this vision, selecting NEA’s architects to design the entire public hub. This was a quiet revolution in urban planning, with a community-led approach resulting in a joined up approach, building in a shared town square, with library and theatre sharing a single, light-filled entrance.
Building community wealth
To make it happen NEA successfully raised over £5 million in capital funding, including £1.7m from the Community Ownership Fund.
Crucially, the NEA third of the Hub is now owned by the community it serves, with 500 members from the local community signed up. This gives a sense of permanence, in an area undergoing new development: whatever other changes happen around them, “we will be here”, as well as integrating accountability and responsiveness into the local community.
NEA is proving that a community arts centre can be a potent economic engine. Recent analysis reveals the sheer scale of their multiplier effect: for every £1 of revenue the organisation receives, it generates £2.37 for the local economy, with approximately 44% going to local freelancers. They also make direct grants to local creative projects, having established an R&D fund, supported by Creative Scotland.
NEA is serious about Community Wealth Building, having hosted a “Community Wealth Builder in Residence” with local partner organisations to embed Community Wealth Building in their work, creating a dense network of local organisations all pulling in the same direction.
The organisation is also serious about reshaping what employment looks like in the sector. With a staff team of 24 and a robust Fair Work policy, NEA provides secure, high-quality jobs in an industry often defined by precarity.
Unlocking opportunities
Inside the Hub, the Community Shed provides tools and training for woodworking and repair, while enterprise units offer affordable space for local makers. It is an environment that nurtures skills of local people, answering NEA’s Director Kate Wimpress’s question: “Where does the next generation of working-class artists come from?”.
They come from here.
Kate underlines that there is a great amount of untapped potential in the area, and by providing cultural opportunities for less typically privileged communities, they can unlock a huge wellspring of talent that might otherwise be lost.
Edinburgh is often noted for the ways its geography segregates different groups and social classes. Breaking down the divide of this “stratified city” is central to NEA’s mission. Having a “quality building” is critical, says NEA’s Director Kate Wimpress. It is their first tool to overcome negative preconceptions about this historically stigmatised area of the city. It should “look like an art gallery”, she says, and the work conducted there should be judged on those same standards of excellence.
There is a tangible sense that working-class communities are marginalised within the cultural sphere. Arguments persist that the Edinburgh Festivals are dominated by a small slice of society – those with the financial security to invest the significant sums often required to put on a show. As Wimpress puts it, living in Edinburgh is expensive, so following a creative path “without a safety net” is very hard. So NEA is creating those support structures for people in Muirhouse.
“Culture is ordinary,” says Kate, citing cultural theorist Raymond Williams. It shouldn’t be a luxury reserved for the city centre festivals; it must be woven into the fabric of daily life.
The support net
Reaching this point required navigating a big imbalance of power. While the vision for the MacMillan Hub was shared, the legal reality involved a small local charity negotiating complex contracts with a major City Council and private housing developers.
This is where Community Land Scotland (CLS) became essential.
CLS is the representative body for Scotland’s aspiring and established community landowners. They offer a unique mix of on-the-ground technical support and national advocacy, translating the abstract rights of the Land Reform Acts into concrete reality for local groups.
For NEA, CLS acted as a bridge between the pioneering rural buyouts of the past and the new wave of urban land reform.
“Our movement has definitely been a rural to urban movement,” explains Josh Doble, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Community Land Scotland. “All the early work and the big thinking was done by the rural groups. Now, we are battling to get the urban groups to have the same level of respect and access to economic opportunities. There are clear lines from the inspiration of what has been achieved in rural areas flowing through to what is now happening in our cities.”
This support was vital in challenging the risk-averse culture often found in the public sector regarding community ownership.
“There is a huge section of very important, influential public bodies that have little concept of what the community sector already does,” notes Josh. “Ths community sector is a credible alternative to the public and private sector, generating a much better use of money, because wealth is kept and circulated locally.”
CLS helps to support and spread the work of organisations like NEA, proving that communities are competent developers capable of delivering and operating multi-million-pound infrastructure.
Things can change
Underpinning Kates’s optimism is her experience growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles – a time when change felt impossible. But change did happen. For peace to happen, it required people – including senior politicians – to “take big risks”. They demonstrated that politics was capable of achieving lasting change.
Similarly, the social and economic problems in Muirhouse are not insurmountable. Kate knows “things can change”. Things are changing in North Edinburgh, with NEA at the heart of that, and more change is on the way.
In a city often defined by its expensive festivals and historic divides, NEA stands as a beacon of a different kind of culture – one that is rooted locally, grown right here, and driven by the people who call this place home. By taking ownership of their land and asserting a new vision for their community, and for culture, North Edinburgh Arts is ensuring that as the skyline of North Edinburgh changes, the community remains central to the story. They drew the blueprints.
