Community rights to take over local assets and services have been used around 1,500 times since they were introduced in 2012, according to figures released today by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The DCLG said communities had applied to list more than 750 “assets of community value”. This gives a community a six-month window to raise the money to buy the asset if it becomes available for sale. These include 250 pubs and 140 parks and playing fields.
And it said 700 areas had been “designated for neighbourhood planning” – a process which allows a community to have more say in planning in their local area.
The DCLG also said that £12m in grant funding has been allocated to support 385 community asset transfer projects through the Community Assets and Services Fund.
The fund was launched in 2012 to support transfer of assets and services from local authorities, and is administered by the Social Investment Business (SIB) on behalf of the DCLG. The fund potentially has another £15m available. It is open until March 2015, but the SIB said charities and community groups should apply well before the closing date.
Most of the grants were for small-scale feasibility grants of less than £10,000, the SIB said. However the fund has now supported 20 community asset projects with over £100,000.
These include £100,000 for the Homebaked Community Land Trust in Anfield, which will take over a disused bakery, £300,000 to the Queenborough Harbour Trust, which will increase the number of moorings in the community-owned harbour, and £422,000 to Greenham Parish Council and Greenham Common Community Trust, to refurbish the control tower of Greenham airbase as a visitor centre for Greenham Common.
'Nuclear option for charities'
A spokesman for local infrastructure body Navca said the figures suggested there had been little use of the community right to challenge, which allows voluntary groups to bid to run a local authority service where they believe they can do so differently and better.
"That isn't surrpising; it's a nuclear option for voluntary organisations," he said. "It's something which is threatened a lot more than used, because using it would destroy your relationship with the local council."
He said the figures on asset transfer appeared relatively encouraging.
"But I'm concerned how many of these expressions of interest will actually turn into something," he said. "We're also concerned that some asset transfers may be the council offloading an asset that it doesn't want onto the voluntary sector."
