Moray Council welcomes new strategy to boost economic development and "keep the money in Moray”

The strategy emphasises how the public sector, in partnership with the private, third and community sectors, can take action to ensure more wealth is generated and circulated locally.

It has five pillars that aim to tackle poverty and inequality, and improve wealth distribution.

• Spending - using public spend to deliver community benefit, fair work and build local supply chains
• Workforce - ensuring the workforce are in secure, well paid, flexible jobs
• Inclusive ownership - stimulating the development and growth of locally owned enterprises that generate community wealth
• Land and Property - ensuring communities maximise benefit and generate wealth from local land and property
• Finance - ensuring flows of wealth generated within the local economy works for the wellbeing of communities and businesses

Committee Chair, Cllr Marc Macrae, said a community wealth building approach to procurement is already progressing well within Moray Council and is set to strengthen.

“I am delighted to launch our Community Wealth Building Strategy, part of Moray’s Economic Recovery Plan. It sets out our ambitions to ensure that, as well as working to obtain best value for money, we do not overlook important benefits that procurement could secure for the Moray economy and for our low carbon commitments."

Darren Anderson, of Andersons Butchers in Buckie, is among a growing number of local companies benefitting from the development of the Moray Community Wealth Building Strategy.

He secured a council tender to supply meat products to school dinner table in the area.

Darren said: “Moray Council told us they wanted to keep everything as local as possible to source local food to reduce food miles and carbon and we were well placed to win the contract.

“We’ve been able to take on an extra full time member of staff and two part-time staff on the back of it so it’s having a knock-on-affect.”