National Asset Transfer Action Group minutes: September 2023

Attendees and apologies

• Kathleen Glazik (Chair), Community Empowerment, Scottish Government
• Malcolm Cowie (Secretariat), Community Empowerment, Scottish Government
• Christopher Robb, Community Empowerment, Scottish Government
• Rebecca Carr, Forestry and Land Scotland
• Sandra Holmes, Highland and Islands Enterprise (online)
• Linda Gillespie, Community Ownership Support Service
• Julia Rolim, Community Ownership Support Service
• Max Steele, Property Division, Scottish Government
• Iain Mulholland, South Lanarkshire Council
• Lee Haxton, Perth and Kinross Council
• Pauline Bradshaw, Glasgow City Council
• Colin Love, South Ayrshire Council
• Sandra Inrig, Renfrewshire Council   

Apologies:

• Dave Thomson, Community Land, Scottish Government
• Maureen Burgess, Fife Voluntary Action
• Angus Hardie, Scottish Community Alliance
• Rebekah Dundas, Scottish Land Fund
• Brian Paton, Edinburgh City Council
• Helen Emery, NHS Highland
• Jillian Matthew, Audit Scotland
• David Mitchell, Property Division, Scottish Government

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Welcomes were extended to Lee Haxton, Perth and Kinross Council, Colin Love, South Ayrshire Council, and Sandra Inrig, Renfrewshire Council, who were attending their first meeting of the group. Lee was attending in place of James Gardner who has now left the group, and a regular replacement will be provided. Julia Rolim, Community Ownership Support Service attended the meeting in her role as data analyst for the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 review of Part 5, asset transfers.

Apologies were noted.

Papers were shared with group members and invited attendees prior to the meeting including a discussion paper for the purposes of reviewing asset transfer sections of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.

Minute of last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting held on 11 May 2023 were agreed and have been published on the National Asset Transfer Action Group

Update since last meeting

An update was provided on work to progress the first asset transfer ministerial review received by Scottish Government for land in its care at Knocknagael, Inverness. A decision to award the transfer with conditions to Knocknagael Ltd was made 4 September 2023 and can be accessed here. Learning from this first ministerial review will help inform subsequent reviews.

On 5 September 2023, the Local Government Housing and Planning Committee took evidence from Tom Arthur, Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance, and Joe Fitzpatrick, Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning on the operation of asset transfers and participation requests, and the transcript of the meeting can be accessed here.

An update on work to progress Part 5 asset transfer review was provided, which will form part of the wider review of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. This included three community workshops that were held in Dumfries on 8 June 2023, Newhaven on 14 September 2023, and Inverness on 22 September 2023. Learning has been gathered from these events and findings will be included as part of the final report. Also for awareness, online workshops are also planned for the Part 3 participation request review on 9 November 2023 and 23 November 2023 and findings will be gathered.

Work COSS has been asked to conduct for the part 5 review including the data analysis of local asset transfer activity levels, and Julia Rolim, researcher based at COSS is leading this work.

The Chair then invited open discussion, and issues surrounding the sustainability of community buildings, and community capacity including the management of community halls and large scale estate management were highlighted. 

Presentation: asset transfer annual reporting figures 2022/23

Malcolm and Chris delivered a presentation highlighting the latest round of national asset transfer annual reporting figures which were due on 30 June 2023.

This is the sixth year of relevant authority annual asset transfer reporting, and to date 54% of authorities have reported their returns, with a few late returns expected up to September. We have been monitoring these figures since 2017/18 which has informed our understanding of activity at the national level.  

To date, 384 asset transfer requests have been made using the legislation, with 225 awarded, 142 in progress, and 36 refused or withdrawn. Local Authorities continue to receive the most requests (78% in 2022/23), however, other public authorities including NHS Boards and Scottish Government agencies are also receiving regular asset transfer requests.

To date, no requests have been received by Education Partners or Transport Partnerships, and only 9% of all requests have been refused or withdrawn, with the vast majority of requests being awarded and progressed. 

Presentation: asset transfer data analysis: update on progress

The session was led by Julia Rolim and focused on research conducted on local asset transfer activity levels to date until September 2023. This research is still ongoing and is due to conclude later in the year. Findings will inform the review of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.    

Julia talked about the initial findings of the asset transfer data review, with a view to geography, ownership/lease trends, urban/rural trends, and deprivation. Findings around AT activity and rurality indicated that rural communities are more likely to undergo an asset transfer and take on an asset. Julia also commented on the regional differences in AT timescales, and the predominance of AT requests from geographic communities over communities of interest. Julia's findings raised questions for future research on how communities secure assets in an urban setting, how to best support deprived communities and how to standardise timescales.

Open discussion session

The Chair introduced the session and encouraged open discussion around the following three key themes. Papers were circulated prior to the meeting to help facilitate these discussions:

• Annual reporting
  • annual reporting levels remain low. What can be done to help improve reporting levels?
  • what can the relevant authorities do to make this information easier to access and more transparent?
  • is there any further role for government? Do we need to strengthen our statutory guidance, or are any legislative changes needed?
• Asset Transfer Guidance
  • it has been six years since the statutory guidance was published. Is the guidance still fit for purpose, or do these documents need reviewed?
• Duty to Publish Register of Land
  • are relevant authorities publishing their registers of land?
  • how easy or difficult is it for the public to access these registers?
  • are they complete, with all land and assets listed?
  • what can be done to encourage improvements to accessing relevant authority land registers?

Relevant Authority annual reporting of asset transfer activity is due on 30 June each year, and annual reporting levels remain low at 50-60% compliance year on year. Reporting needs to improve, and although the annual reporting template has maintained levels of reporting, these need innovative ways to be considered to support better reporting.

The group considered publishing local activity data on the Scottish Government website to highlight areas where activity is taking place. It would be possible to publish data by authority type (e.g. Local Authorities; NHS Boards etc.) but would not be possible to reduce this further to the individually named relevant authorities. The 95 relevant authorities could also be encouraged to report through their asset transfer single point of contact, and Scottish Government currently contacts known officers where available to encourage compliance. It was discussed the Community Planning Partner leads could also have a role to play to encourage better annual reporting.

It was agreed the published statutory guidance for asset transfer (for relevant authorities and for community transfer bodies) needs refreshed that includes additional guidance for asset transfer ownership, and clearer guidance on how community transfer bodies are constituted.        

Relevant authorities have a duty to publish their registers of land and buildings for the purpose of asset transfer legislation. It was agreed that although there is no requirement to make a specific list for asset transfers, the authorities must make their property lists accessible and available on a public facing website.

Action: Scottish Government Community Empowerment Team to have a conversation with property and energy colleagues on property lists and the Scottish Government Heat Map.

Other approaches were considered including the Improvement Service who carried out work on community land and assets and has developed a single mapping tool.

Any other business

The group were once again asked to consider any other people who might wish to join the National Asset Transfer Action group, and to signpost them to Malcolm for a conversation if interested.  

Date of next meeting

The next meeting will be held in February/March 2024, date to be confirmed.

The next meeting will provide an opportunity to build on these conversations, and to provide an update on the concluding phase of the work of the review.