How can Wales build the right kind of prosperity?

27th February 2026

In the run-up to the 2026 Senedd elections, Wellbeing Economy Cymru has convened an online forum to ask a simple but urgent question:

How can Wales build prosperity that is shared, sustainable and locally rooted?

We brought together practitioners, policymakers, community leaders and candidates to explore what we want from the next Welsh Government – and what policy levers are already available to us here in Wales.

As I said at the start of the session, “we limit ourselves with an obsession on economic growth at any cost.” The real question is: who is that growth actually serving? Who owns the productive parts of our economy? And do we, as citizens, have access to the means of our own wellbeing?

Across the discussion, one theme came through clearly: Wales is not short of ideas, practice or energy. What we need is alignment, courage and clarity.

Anchoring wealth in Welsh communities

Dan Roberts, Senior Policy & Engagement Officer at Cwmpas, opened by reminding us that the social business sector in Wales is already substantial. There are over 3,000 social businesses operating here, employing tens of thousands of people and anchoring billions in turnover within Welsh communities.

“This isn’t a new idea,” he said. “There are already people out there in communities doing this.”

The policy ask is not to invent something new, but to strengthen what is already working – through specialist support, accessible finance and embedding community wealth building more firmly in law and strategy.

Dan was clear about one area in particular: “We need to have community ownership rights embedded in legislation in Wales… We don’t need to talk about it anymore.”

A working example from Blaenau Ffestiniog

Gwenlli Evans from Cwmni Bro Ffestiniog shared a powerful case study of what locally rooted enterprises can look like in practice.

In Blaenau Ffestiniog, a network of over 20 social enterprises now works collaboratively rather than competitively. Together they employ nearly 100 full-time staff, 60 part time staff, involve 180 volunteers, and, as a community, hold around £6 million in community assets.

“It’s based on trust,” Gwenlli explained. “If you get rid of that competition and have good conversations, then good things can happen.”

The focus is not just on individual projects, but on building critical mass – retaining buildings on the high street, creating space for young people, supporting local traders, developing environmental projects, and keeping money circulating locally.

“Our communities are working for the economy,” Gwenlli said later in the session, “but the economy isn’t working for our communities. So we need to flip that.”

Rethinking what we mean by prosperity

A strong thread throughout the discussion was the need to change how Wales defines economic success.

Wales has already expanded the definition of prosperity through the Future Generations Act. But the discussion suggested that the next step may be more structural: ensuring that our economy is designed to serve communities, rather than expecting communities to adapt to the needs of the economy.

Philip Webb’s point was direct: “If we don’t change what we mean by a prosperous Wales… the really great work that’s actually being done in local communities will largely get ignored.”

As GDP and GVA dominate political thinking, democratic, community-based, locally rooted models will continue to struggle for recognition in mainstream economic debate.

There was also a call for better evidence. “It would be nice to have that number,” one participant said, referring to wealth leakage from Wales, “because it gives us a target.”

In other words, if we are serious about retaining wealth locally, we need to measure it.

Nature, finance and enabling environments

Catherine Howell from Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority widened the lens further, linking social and ecological wellbeing.

“The state of nature and societal prosperity are dire,” she said plainly. “We know that these dual challenges… are a direct consequence of the economic model that has been pursued for decades.”

Her focus was on enabling environments – how public bodies can support communities to lead change in food, energy, land use and nature recovery.

But she ended with a crucial warning about finance, referencing Kate Raworth’s insights about the conflict between social value enterprises, and traditional finance.

“A business that is built on a living purpose may have strong foundations, but without a source of finance that is aligned with its values, it’s unlikely to survive and thrive.”

This returned us to the issue of finance. If Wales is serious about supporting community-led models, we will need different kinds of funding – patient capital, regenerative finance, endowment funds, community wealth funds – that reinvest in long-term wellbeing.

Political courage and practical steps

As we drew the session to a close, we pulled together the threads, which we share below as a list of Policy Levers for the Next Welsh Government.

We talked about:

Changing what we measure as success
Embedding community wealth building
Strengthening community ownership rights
Aligning finance with long-term wellbeing
Supporting local democratic infrastructure
Being brave enough to question extractive inward investment

The energy in the room was not abstract. Several Senedd candidates were present. One described wellbeing economics as “not a nice to do, it’s a need to do.”

The discussion was grounded in lived experience, in communities already doing the work, and in the urgent realities of child poverty, environmental breakdown and economic insecurity.

At a time when all parties are searching for the big answers to urgent economic and social challenges, the instinct might be to look for large capital projects in the hope of “unlocking growth”. But this conversation illuminated a different way of thinking. The big shift may not be another big-ticket solution. The “big thing” is to invest properly in all the small things. Backing local ownership. Funding collaboration. Strengthening the distributed initiatives already taking root across Wales. Building strong local foundations and trusting that, together, they add up to systemic change.

Key Policy Levers for the Next Welsh Government

Drawing on the live discussion, here’s our set of recommendations for creating the right kind of prosperity for Wales.

1. Embed Wales’ Broader Definition of Prosperity in Economic Practice

Wales has already expanded its definition of prosperity through the Well-being of Future Generations Act. The task now is to fully embed this wider definition in economic policy, investment decisions and performance measures.

Move beyond over-reliance on GDP, GVA and jobs growth as headline indicators.
Align economic strategy with the Act’s wellbeing goals in practice, not just principle.
Measure social value, community wealth retention and long-term wellbeing outcomes.
Be prepared to say clearly that business-as-usual pursuit of growth is not delivering for Wales.

Unless our economic framework reflects our legislative ambitions, community-based models will continue to be undervalued.

2. Design the Economy to Serve Communities

Shift from an assumption that communities must adapt to the needs of the economy, to one where economic policy strengthens local resilience and democratic ownership.

Make retaining wealth in Welsh communities a core economic goal.
Track and reduce profit leakage from Wales.
Require public bodies to support local supply chains and locally rooted enterprise.
Anchor public investment in ways that build long-term local resilience.

The objective is ensuring that economic activity benefits communities rather than extracting from them.

3. Strengthen Community Ownership Rights

Give communities real power over local assets and access to land.

Introduce a clear Community Right to Buy.
Provide protected time for community bids when assets come up for sale.
Back asset transfer with practical funding and support.

Community control of land and buildings is foundational to long-term resilience.

4. Invest in Small, Locally Rooted Enterprise

Shift economic development support toward democratic and social business models.

Maintain and expand specialist support for co-operatives and social enterprises.
Ensure accessible, appropriate finance for these models.
Stop forcing social enterprises into competition for small pots of funding.

Wales already has working examples. Government’s role is to strengthen what is working.

5. Align Finance with Values

Ensure funding structures support regenerative, community-based work.

Develop funding models that reflect long-term social and environmental value.
Establish endowment funds and community wealth funds that retain and reinvest value for future generations.
Support regenerative finance models that match the purpose of the work.

As was said in the discussion: a business built on a living purpose cannot thrive if finance pulls in the opposite direction.

6. Support Local Democratic Infrastructure

Empower communities to decide together.

Fund place-based collaboration and partnership structures.
Support forums that bring stakeholders together to shape local economic strategy.
Build local democratic and participatory capacity.

Economic transformation depends on strong local democratic spaces.

7. Be Brave About Inward Investment

Rebalance the current approach.

Scrutinise large-scale inward investment through a community wealth lens.
Attach stronger long-term local benefit requirements to public subsidy.
Ensure public assets are developed for public good.
Be honest about the limits of extractive models.

There was a clear call for political courage – to question whether existing growth models are delivering for Wales.

In Essence

From this discussion, the message to the next Welsh Government is simple:

Embed Wales’ broader definition of prosperity in practice.
Design the economy to serve communities.
Retain wealth locally.
Empower democratic ownership.
Align finance with purpose.

Nothing here requires starting from scratch, but it does demand political bravery and a commitment to Wellbeing Economics, with greater clarity, alignment and courage.

Dawn Lyle, Wellbeing Economy Cymru

You can watch the full recording of this online discussion on Youtube: https://youtu.be/WX_Dr-ciw6k