Keeping Swindon’s Wealth Local – Building a Fairer Economy Together
As Leader of Swindon Borough Council, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made since Labour took office. From reducing anti-social behaviour and opening new youth hubs, to ensuring families have safe housing, we’ve shown what can be achieved when we put people first. But we know there’s more to do—especially when it comes to tackling inequality and creating opportunities for everyone in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
That’s why we’re launching an ambitious Community Wealth Building plan. At its heart, this approach is simple: keep more of Swindon’s wealth in Swindon. Every year, millions of pounds flow through public services and major employers. By working together, we can make sure that money benefits local people and businesses, rather than leaving our town.
Our model is built on five pillars:
- Progressive procurement – directing more spending to local, ethical suppliers.
- Fair employment – promoting decent work, fair pay, and inclusive recruitment.
- Socially productive use of land – turning underused sites into community assets.
- Widening ownership – supporting co-operatives and community enterprises.
- Harnessing financial power – encouraging local reinvestment through ethical finance.
We’ve already started. Council contracts now include social value weighting, and we’re increasing the share of local suppliers. We’ve increased our spend with Swindon businesses from 40% to 48% and set ourselves a new target of 60%. And we’re exploring co-operative models for food, energy, and care—giving residents a real stake in our economy.
Crucially, this isn’t just about the Council. Swindon is home to outstanding anchor institutions—organisations like Great Western Hospital, Nationwide Building Society, Zurich, and Network Rail and the Great Western Rail. Swindon has more large employers and national headquarters than most towns our size. These employers have huge purchasing power and thousands of staff. By partnering with them, we can create more good jobs, strengthen local supply chains, and build a more resilient economy.
We’ll also be targeting the new companies we are attracting to invest in Swindon to get involved. It is amazing that we are attracting Drone companies to the town as we look to reinvent our advanced manufacturing sector again. We moved from being a Railway town to a Car town, and now we want to focus on Drones as we develop the next chapter of world-leading manufacturing in Swindon. Why can’t we regain our status as the fastest growing town in Europe?
I’ll be in London this weekend at the Co-operative Party conference making sure Swindon is at the heart of the conversations about how we drive this agenda forward.
Places like Preston have shown this approach works. Now it’s Swindon’s turn. Together, we can make our town a national leader in inclusive growth. Let’s keep Swindon’s wealth local and build a better future for all.