How to… support community asset transfer

A new guide has been launched to help councillors to transfer local assets to communities.

The guide, launched by Locality and Power to Change, sets out the key steps in the community asset transfer (CAT) process, and helps councillors assess the risks involved.

The four steps to a successful community asset transfer, set out in the guide, are:

1. Securing high level support and understanding across the council: The guide says that transferring assets to communities often requires a change in culture at the council. It requires local authorities to ‘let go’ and help communities to ‘step up’. The guide recommends that executive responsibility for community assets be given to a council cabinet member who becomes the key contact for the community.
2. Embedding an effective CAT policy: a clear and consistent policy with defined roles and responsibilities is crucial to the success of community asset transfer, the report says, and this policy should be adopted and embedded within decision-making processes at the council. The guide says that councillors are key to instigating the initial development of an asset transfer policy and securing support for it.
3. Supporting community capacity: councils need to ensure that groups have the skills and capability to take on assets. Helping community groups with business planning and access to funding in particular can help smooth the journey.
4. Building trusting relationships: The guides says that councillors, as key community activists and connectors, should use their convening power to enable and facilitate dialogue. Strong partnerships between councils and community are at the heart of good community asset transfers.

The guide cites the experience of Kirklees council in supporting their communities through the CAT process. The council offers tailored support to organisations, helping them develop a business case and governance and offers small grants to assist with feasibility studies and legal costs. The council also offers revenue support to groups taking over buildings and is open to offering freehold as well as leasehold transfers.

Councillor Graham Turner, cabinet member at Kirklees council, said that support for groups and a robust process are key to the success of community asset transfer.

‘Community asset transfer forms a core part of how we leverage all assets and resources to strengthen our community infrastructure’, he said. ‘The support we offer community groups is an important part of this partnership but it also supports a robust process: we don’t want to just give the community a set of keys and then turn around and find out two years later that the project has failed.’

Vidhya Alakeson, chief executive of Power to Change said:

‘Assets like the Meltham Carlile Institute, which was transferred to community ownership in 2013, now houses the council’s offices, a library and a gym, and Bramley Baths a Grade II bath house that the council couldn’t afford to run is now a community owned pool which attracts over 2000 people a week. Some councils have shown great vision in transferring assets successfully but many more need to follow suit.

‘Our research has found that there are around £7bn worth of assets that could be transferred from the council and their communities, and run as community businesses, recycling profits into the local economy. This guide will make it even easier for councillors to unlock that potential.’

• Download the guide here.