Keeping Money Local: What Can Councils do?
Speaker: Derek Whyte, Assistant Chief Executive, Preston City Council
We are delighted to invite you to the Transition Wilmslow Lecture 2016, to be given by Derek Whyte, Assistant Chief Executive, Preston City Council, and the leader of the Community Wealth Project in Preston.
Councils, like governments, spend a great deal of our money, but using that money differently can be a way of generating social change and improving communities. Using money locally is good for communities; just diverting £5 a week per adult from non local to local shopping in a town like Wilmslow would generate more than £5m a year invested in the town, and generate local jobs. The spending power of local authorities is huge, and research on their spending shows that for every £1 they spent with a small or medium-sized local business, 63p stayed in the local economy, compared to 40p if they spent with a larger non local business. There are ethical and social reasons for investing locally too, and councils have the power to generate social change through their spending choices.
This lecture will show how Preston City Council have looked at the collective procurement of not just the local council but other local “anchor” organisations to reduce the money leaking from the local economy so that more can be invested locally. This lecture will be of interest to anyone who cares about their local community and who would like to see more investment; there will be plenty of opportunity for discussion to consider how we might do something similar here.
Date: Monday 10th October 2016, 7.30pm,
Venue: Friends Meeting House, Bourne Street, Wilmslow, SK9 5HD.
Admission free, £2 donation for coffee and cake.
