Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation aims to create a fairer, more prosperous and greener economy that works for everyone. However, the changing climate and its impact on agriculture, infrastructure and health, as well as the effects of an aging population and structural inequalities all have ramifications for future inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Addressing these multiple policy objectives is a challenge for policymakers – but researchers can help.
Competing priorities and other barriers to implementation were highlighted in a recent ClimateXChange report, Analysing Scotland’s diet and climate policy landscape. For example, the research pointed to costs and incentives for the adoption of policies and the lack of evidence on the effectiveness of equitable and sustainable initiatives, such as regenerative farming; slowing and fragmenting any progress on these inter-related challenges.
Strategic thinking is needed on how policy aspirations, such as the Good Food Nation Act which aims to support a sustainable, locally sourced food sector while supporting industry growth, are applied within the wider policy context of inclusive economic growth.
I am part of a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded project being led by Micaela Mazzei and Neil Craig at Glasgow Caledonian University, to evaluate the impact of community wealth building in Scotland on health and health inequality outcomes. Community wealth building is an economic development approach that originated in Ohio, USA in the 1990s. It focuses on communities owning and controlling their assets1. This approach was introduced to the UK in 2005 and has gained momentum across the devolved nations2. The Scottish Government’s 2024-25 Programme for Government included plans to support a consistent implementation of community wealth building across local and regional economies3. Community wealth building, through its focus on local land use, developing local labour markets and procurement processes, may provide an approach that supports the implementation of policies addressing these multiple objectives.
North Ayrshire Council has been one of the leading local authorities in developing and implementing community wealth building principles. With food procurement a component of its strategy, the council has committed to procuring school food locally with 95% of food originating in the UK and 50% in Scotland. This approach has the potential to address some of the key barriers to changes in unsustainable and unhealthy food practices identified in the Analysing Scotland’s diet and climate policy landscape such as improving access to locally produced food and embedding sustainability in public food settings. Practices which bring locally grown, healthy food to children have the potential to lead to dietary change which has been elusive in approaches reliant on individual choice rather than structural changes.
The challenge for us as researchers is to undertake evaluations of these policies and to generate evidence to demonstrate the impacts they can have on health and economic outcomes. Our NIHR funded study, through a robust evaluation approach, will hopefully be a stepping stone in creating that evidence base to help the Scottish Government achieve its aims of a more inclusive and environmentally friendly economy, that also has a positive impact on health and health inequalities.
References:
- Democracy Collaborative, 2025. “Democracy Collaborative”. Available at: https://www.democracycollaborative.org/ ↩︎
- Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), 2025. “The history of community wealth building.” Available at: https://cles.org.uk/what-is-community-wealth-building/the-history-of-community-wealth-building/ ↩︎
- Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Minister for Employment and Investment, 2025. “Community wealth building”. Scottish Government. Available at: https://www.gov.scot/policies/cities-regions/community-wealth-building/ ↩︎