Communities and Place Committee welcomes community asset transfer report

Communities and Place Members met today (Wednesday 17 August) and agreed the annual community asset transfer report for the Scottish Government to inform policy and practice at local and national level.

Chair of the Communities and Place Committee Cllr Graham MacKenzie said: “We welcome the community asset transfers that have taken place over the last year: The Council agreed to 12 asset transfer requests and refused nil requests during the year 2021/22.

“This is great news for local communities where people are being empowered to take forward local priorities and projects and making a difference in their local areas.”

Of the community asset transfers agreed in 2021/22:

• 6 were for ownership; 4 for leases; 2 for rights of access or short-term occupancy agreements.
• 8 were under the Community Empowerment Act
• 4 were handled under general property disposal regulations.
• Discounts on sale through CAT ranged from 71% - 100% of market value.
• Discounts on lease through CAT ranged from 0% - 100% of market rental value.
• Discounts on potential capital value of assets released to community bodies totalled £255,996.
• Discounts on potential rental income totalled £1,999 per annum.
• Capital receipts to the Council from transfers to community ownership totalled £1004.

The Community Asset Transfer (CAT) process in Highland continues to support community led regeneration, social enterprise, projects to increase local participation and engagement, health and wellbeing, redeveloped facilities and delivery of new and improved local services, including visitor management facilities.

Since the asset transfer legislation was introduced back in 2017, the Council has transferred 22 assets and approved a total of 45 requests.

The asset transfer requests agreed to in 2021/22 are typical of the type of requests seen in recent years; a mix of creating new facilities, developing or upgrading existing facilities or reinstating previous facilities/services. There is a strong focus on visitor related facilities, health and wellbeing projects and leisure and sports related projects. Regeneration, community development and revenue generation are all key themes and a desire to improve local communities at the heart of all the requests that have been approved. The details of each request can be found at appendix 1 of the report.

The CAT submitted to the Scottish Government outlines recommendations to further improve the CAT process for communities by identifying a number of improvements that could enhance the uptake of CAT.

They include the following:

• availability of start-up and capital development funds to support the delivery of community projects following acquisition of land and buildings and expert legal support for community organisations
• A partnership approach to support community groups is crucial to enable groups to take on assets. Several ambitious projects associated with CAT requests have arisen from community groups with professional development officer capacity, but volunteer led projects have at times struggled with capacity to engage with the administrative demands of the CAT process.
• Consideration should be given to targeting national/central funding at areas and groups that are less developed and also those which do not have independent financial means e.g. windfarm funding.
• Sources of post-acquisition grant support - community transfer bodies have highlighted particular challenges around limited availability of flexible financial sources to fund redevelopment of assets following transfer. This has also been highlighted as a concern at a regional level by public sector partners and nationally by DTAS-COSS.

Cllr MacKenzie added: “The Council has created a Community Loans Fund and supports groups through a range of local funding opportunities, however a national fund for this purpose would be welcomed.”

Details on community asset transfers in Highland and how to apply for them can be found on the council’s website at: www.highland.gov.uk/cat or please email cat@highland.gov.uk