Asset transfer
Part 5 of the Community Empowerment Act introduces a right for community bodies to make requests to all local authorities, Scottish Ministers and a range of public bodies for any land or buildings they feel they could make better use of. They can request ownership, lease or other rights as they wish.
The public authorities must transparently assess requests against a specified list of criteria, laid out in the Act, and agree the request unless there are reasonable grounds for refusal.
Should such a request be refused, the community group have a right to appeal or to ask for a review of that decision. We are currently (March 2020) recruiting a pool of candidates to be called upon to assist with reviews and/or appeals, for more information or to be added to the pool of candidates please contact: AssetTransferGuidance@gov.scot
Guidance
We have developed asset transfer guidance for relevant authorities and community bodies:
- asset transfer guidance for relevant authorities
- asset transfer guidance for community transfer bodies
- summary guide to asset transfer
- social value guidance
We have also produced model documents, including forms, correspondence and notices, and case studies of successful asset transfer applications:
Any comments or questions on the guidance can be sent to AssetTransferGuidance@gov.scot.
The Scottish Government has established a National Asset Transfer Action Group whose remit is to take forward the findings and recommendations of Glasgow Caledonian University’s report “Asset Transfer Requests: Evaluation of Part 5 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015; consider the learning from asset transfer activity over the last few years, the challenges and opportunities it presents; and what actions need to be taken more broadly, and by whom, to ensure that asset transfer is achieving its goal to drive change and empower communities.
Regulating asset transfer
We have created amended versions of the legal regulations relating to asset transfer.