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Policy and Legislation

Although community based organisations have a long history of managing/owning assets, it is arguably only in recent years that the momentum behind community asset transfer has gathered pace.

The previous Government moved the latent agenda ‘up a gear’ in 2007 with the publication of the Quirk Review and then launching a number of further reports and initiatives, including the ATU itself in April 2009. Since the General Election in May 2010, the policy context has changed significantly, with the agenda for asset transfer, and a more active civil society more generally, arguably accelerating under the direction of the current Government.

Here we briefly summarise some of the key milestones in the evolving policy landscape over the last few years.

The Quirk Review

The recent drive to promote asset transfer began with the Quirk Review Report: Making Assets Work, published in May 2007, which explored the barriers and incentives affecting the transfer of public assets to community management and ownership. The report concluded that: “the benefits of community management and ownership of public assets can outweigh the risks and often the opportunity costs in appropriate circumstances”.

Big Society and Localism

The current Government first launched the Big Society as a policy programme as ‘Building the Big Society’ on 18th May 2010. The Big Society has been presented as the alternative to ‘big government’, with the Prime Minister saying the Government is “committed to a radical shift of power from Westminster to local people”. The Big Society and decentralisation message attempts to re-balance the relationship between the government and the governed.

The twin track themes behind the Big Society philosophy are: A drive to ensure a bigger role for ‘civil society’ and to encourage more citizen involvement and community action; A drive to diversify public service delivery and to increase community and voluntary sector provision of more citizen-focused services.

The Localism Act

After months of intense lobbying in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the Localism Bill received royal assent at the end of 2011 and passed into law as the Localism Act.

The Localism Act is intended to devolve power from central government to individuals, communities and local councils. The Act is a key piece of legislation in the government’s drive for decentralisation. Locality has been lobbying strongly in support of the Community Rights throughout the Bill’s journey through parliament and is pleased that the legislation now exists to help ensure local people and groups have a real opportunity to shape and influence their communities.

Different parts of the Act will come into effect at different times. The Government has stated that they are aiming for many of the measures to come into effect in April 2012 and will be issuing regular updates on the start dates and public consultations on different parts of the Act through the Department for Communities and Local Government’s website, www.communities.gov.uk

Community Right to Bid

The Community Right to Bid aims to ensure important assets remain in public use and stay part of community life. Voluntary and community organisations and parish councils can nominate an asset to be included on a ‘list of assets of community value’ which the local authority is required to maintain.

Useful Resources:

What powers do local authorities have to transfer assets?

Local authorities are able to transfer their land and buildings to community based organisations at ‘less than best consideration’, i.e. below market value. Local Government can dispose of its assets at less than best consideration under the General Disposal Consent (England) 2003, where the asset to be disposed of has an ‘undervalue’ of less than £2million.

The legislation also requires that the transfer should help to secure the promotion or improvement of the economic, social or environmental well-being of an area. For further information on the specific consent, see: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/462483.pdf

For more detail on individual policy and legislation see below

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