I’m in Preston and feeling inspired. I’ve not felt so connected to a city in such a short space of time.

It was a bit of challenge walking in – encountering busy roads and fast moving people with no desire to say hello for the first time in a while. It was always clear to me that I was going to be entering a part of the UK that isn’t as WELLBY wealthy as other places I’ve passed through in this journey. In some places in the UK there is struggle, and it’s generational. And that sort of thing sets a person back when it comes to their journey for happiness.

The Preston Model aka Prestonomics

Preston derived its name from its high proportion of churches, with the literal translation being ‘priest-town’. It is home to the church with the tallest spire.

I was at the spire earlier today as I zipped about the city on a bicycle with a new friend who’s given me shelter for a couple of nights whilst I’m here. I’ve long used a forum, primarily set up for touring cyclists, that connects people needing places to stay when passing through town. It’s based around gift economy principles and its about connection and community rather than free accommodation. I’ve hosted loads of people in my various homes over the years and now it’s time for me to give back (as I’ve written about elsewhere, sometimes taking can be giving).

So, my host lent me a bicycle and showed me about town. He knows the city and is connected in to his community. A key subject of our discussion has been various community projects. Preston has a good share of enterprises that do things differently – community interest companies, cooperatives, and municipality ownership. This is no accident.

Preston Council has been pioneering a people-centred approach to local economic development known as Community Wealth Building. Community Wealth Building is an approach to local economic development that aims to keep wealth circulating in the local economy to bring long-term and sustained benefits to the people that live there. It’s an economic model that is grounded in fairness and inclusivity.

There is a high level of deprivation in Preston. Preston boomed during the industrial revolution but like a lot of other post-industrialised towns in the north there have been challenges. After the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the instigation of austerity (always boggles me that those that suffered the most during the financial crisis were made to pay the price), Preston councillors took the opportunity to try something different.

One of Preston’s local councillors, Matthew Brown, took a large chunk of their day yesterday to fill me in with all the work that had gone on in the city over the years. He showed me around a selection of projects spearheaded by the Council to bring power back into the hands of local people. From regenerated buildings, repurposed public spaces, and salvaged events spaces to housing cooperatives, community energy initiatives, and locally owned and run businesses, it all seems to be happening in Preston these days.

Some theory

Community Wealth Building is an economic model that is far different than the one that dominates our societies at present. Our present economic system is extractive. A company comes to an area, makes use of the local resources, and any wealth it creates is repatriated to distant shareholders.

Whilst there might be some jobs and a small boost to the local economy from additional spending, the real economic benefits don’t stick around. The gains are not shared. Wealth doesn’t circulate and generate further wealth in the community.

In many people’s eyes, that’s just how business works. And some, mostly those that benefit from the extractive economic model, even think it’s business at its best. Community Wealth Building promotes the need retain as much of that wealth as possible and this is achieved through:

1. Prioritising local supply chains
2. Ensuring fair and just employment
3. Putting land and property to socially productive use
4. Plural ownership, and
5. Local financing

Without these five pillars, then wealth easily leaks out of the community. Check out more here.

Preston was named ‘Most Improved City in the UK’ in 2018. A concerted effort by the Council and local anchor institutions to embed the above 5 pillars in their own operations has resulted, according to recent spend analysis, in retaining £112.3 million within the city – an increase of £74m on 2012/13 levels. Further, 4000 extra employees in Preston are now receiving the Real Living Wage. There has been wholesale involvement and further development is already in the process.

An article in The Lancet showed that relative to expected trends, the introduction of the Community Wealth Building programme was associated with improved mental health (reduced prevalence of depression and antidepressant prescriptions), 9% improvement in life satisfaction, and an 11% increase in median wages. This is substantial and illustrates a large potential for economic regeneration.

But how do people on the ground feel?

Although the Preston model is supported by solid theory and evidence, this doesn’t necessarily mean that people welcome it. In my short time here it’s been a key subject of my conversations. I’ve spoken to a few people (not representative by any means – my host, his wife and friends, an ex-councillor from a rival party to the one that showed me about town, and even the masseuse that gave me one of the best massages of my life) and most people get it in principle, but they are cynical.

To some it just looks like the Council meddling or political point scoring, and the failures seem to stand out to people (of which there are some) more than the successes (which is a natural human bias). There is a mindset that is opposed to change of any kind – change can be destabilising and scary – and faith in our systems to ever serve us is low.

But the numbers are astonishingly positive. Preston, although there are still struggles, is fairing much better than other places and a lot of people do recognise that. This is not to undermine people’s experiences, but they still recognise there is deep struggle in a place that had long struggled, and it’s not always easy to see the wider changes at play that have improved things. Community Wealth Building represents a fundamentally different way of doing business. It shares power and it shares wealth. That has to be a good thing, doesn’t it?

The future has to be communtiy led

This is not the first time I’ve come across Community Wealth Building. Other councils in the UK have been implementing this approach. I use the model myself when helping organisations to think about how they can make a positive impact in the communities they operate within – universities, public health bodies, small scale local projects, etc.

What’s really exciting is that Community Wealth Building might one day be embedded within legislation in Scotland. It’s already viewed in Scotland as an essential strategy for the wellbeing economy and development proposals that contribute to local or regional community wealth building strategies are more likely to be supported.

I always love conversations with my Nan about how she grew up. There was a richness in community life in her day. In our individualistically minded, economic growth at all costs, societies, our communities have been undermined. Instead there is isloation, aloneness and, as I’ve written about on this journey, a high readiness to manipulate to survive.

There was difficulty in my Nan’s day and age too, of course, but that doesn’t mean that we should ignore the clear positives. By some indicators of progress things have stagnated since the 60s and 70s. Sometimes going back can also be a going forward. And I always think it makes for a better society when we come together to help one another. It’s part of our nature and it makes us feel good too.

***Thank for reading this article. I’m currently journeying to Edinburgh to London on foot on a journey about home. It’s taking me to some amazing places and helping me to understand more about home – in the specific and wider sense of the word. You can find other blog posts I’ve written about the journey and why I’m doing it here.