More time needed for community assets purchase
Local groups need more time to decide whether they are able to raise funds to purchase local assets, according to Kevin Curley of NAVCA.
The experiences of a number of charities who have gone ahead and done this indicate that the proposed six-week ‘interim window of opportunity’, followed by a suggested ‘full window’ period to get the money together of either another six weeks or 20 weeks, is simply not long enough.
The community right to buy consultation paper was published on 2 February, closes on 3 May1 and is part of the localism bill (see page 6 of this issue). The bill aims to ‘introduce new powers to help communities save local facilities threatened with closure.’ Under the new legislation, local groups will have a statutory right to nominate any vital community asset, including local shops, pubs, libraries and leisure centres, to be assessed for recording on a 'most wanted' list by the local council. If a listed asset goes on the open market, its sale will be delayed triggering a 'community countdown' that will give people time to prepare their business plan and raise the funds they need to bid.
Caroline Schwaller, chief executive of Keighley and Ilkley Voluntary and Community Action2 told Caritas how, it took more than five years to negotiate and refurbish the town’s newest resource centre – Central Hall – as a community managed asset on a 99 year peppercorn lease. By the time the feasibility studies had been done and the overall funding and project planning partnership was put together, this ended up as a complex £1.74m project with £1m coming from Big Lottery, which managed the Community Assets Fund. She did concede that this is a particularly large project and that many asset transfer initiatives could take less time, but the principles around needing time to build relationships, carry out research, build business cases and raise funds, remain the same. She asked for clarity on what Communities and Local Government secretary Eric Pickles means by transfer – leasehold or freehold – and whether there is an intention to allow for both; depending on which there are particular considerations in each case.
1. www.communities.gov.uk/documents/ localgovernment/pdf/1835775.pdf
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