I was working at the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Inverness on Saturday, promoting a share offer for a local wind farm co-op. I spoke to a gentleman who attended your Lecture at Eden Court Theatre the night before and we had a good chat about your thoughts on community ownership and social enterprise. I couldn’t agree more that Scotland is a nation of social democrats that have an inherent mistrust of private investment. I also unfortunately agree that action against the current capitalist system and towards something more suitable to Scottish values will not be taken until the job queues start extending (something I fear is immanent).
I work with Energy4All Scotland, a not-for-profit social enterprise that promotes and delivers community ownership of renewable energy projects. My experience of working with communities in the Highlands at the grass routes is that a model of community ownership and enterprise is wholly acceptable to our culture. The biggest problem we have is the current apathy that pervades people’s lives. However when people make the effort, listen to what can be achieved and are open to these ideas, we find an almost road to Damascus response and a lot of energy given to making things happen. Projects such as the Dancing Ladies on Gigha, the Tiree & Westray Community Wind Turbines, the Isle of Skye Energy Co-op, these are all projects that happen thanks largely to this sense of doing something of intrinsic value and not just for their pockets. It requires a degree of handholding and relies on the people who get involved to give communities the confidence to take a community project forward, so we need to let more people know how the future could be so we can get more people involved. If we choose to take a more serious interest in the community power to provide, verses relying on the increasingly fragile global markets, people may find it preferable working for their community rather than the corporate complex. In doing so our current mistrust of private investment could be re-directed into social enterprise, where the returns on investment are held alongside social and environmental returns and the all important community control.
My personal opinion is that communities should and could take ownership of the important functions of their every day lives. The food they grow, the energy they need, the houses they build, health, education, local governance, even entertainment. Let the corporations and private equity deal with the business of manufacturing the technology and providing the high level services and let communities deal with the daily needs so we can all feel involved in our lives again.
Along with Energy4All Scotland, there are various social enterprises, charities and Trusts already on this agenda. On behalf of them and the communities we all represent it would be good if a person in your position could represent our activities in some way. To make the sea change happen requires a voice to communicate and an orchestra to give it power. The wind section is already well established with the wood section practising hard.
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