Agenda item

Stephen Douglass, Head of Community Engagement to outline what is meant by assets of community value.

Stephen Douglass, Head of Community Engagement, explained that the Localism Act introduced some community rights that had come into force in 2012. Broadly speaking there were four new community rights in the legislation:

1. Neighbourhood planning
2. Community right to build
3. Community right to challenge
4. Community right to bid.

The new community right to bid was now in force. It was about keeping valued land and buildings in community use, by giving local people the chance to bid to buy them if they came onto the market. It gave certain groups the right to nominate public and private land and buildings to be part of a register of assets of community value. If something on the nominated registered list came up for sale then the right could be triggered. The community group then would have six months to prepare a bid and compete to buy it. Examples included village shops, public houses, former schools, and public open spaces. Southwark was required to publish the list of nominated assets. More details on the process had been circulated and available on request.

The community right to bid was about ensuring that an asset no longer used in the community and with a reasonable prospect of continuing to be in community use, had a measure of protection. The groups eligible to nominate for the list were tightly defined within the legislation. A registered charity could nominate as could a group with at least twelve people on the electoral register in Southwark.

The first stage was nominating for the list which would then be published as a land charge on the property. If the property came up for sale, the owner was obliged to inform the council.  If a constituted community group, then expressed an interest to buy, there would be a six month moratorium period that prevented the owner selling to anyone else. The owner was not obliged to sell to the group.

The community right to challenge came into effect in June 2012. It was about community organisations interested in running a public service. That could include a wide range of local services. If a community organisation came forward expressing an interest in running a public service it would trigger a procurement exercise. There would then be an open procurement with no guarantee of success.

In response to questions, Stephen made the following points:

• The definition of community use in the legislation, applied to the community right to bid, was about furthering the social well-being of an area. The Localism Act gave the example of cultural, recreational and sporting use. It was up to community organisations to put in a nomination and make their case.