The Community Empowerment Act introduced a right for community bodies to make requests to all local authorities, 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.

Important to note that it’s not just the local Council that can be approached for an asset transfer , but any public body such as Police, NHS, Fire Service and The Forestry Commission (which owns a lot of ground in Aberdeen City area).

Community Asset Transfer allows not just for ownership of assets but for lease or other rights over the asset.  If bodies want to own a transferred asset then they would usually expect to be corporate bodies, like a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, A limited company or a Community Benefit Society.

A number of the closed public libraries were recently listed as eligible for CAT in Aberdeen

If the plan is to lease the asset only, or take on a license to occupy, then simple constituted groups can qualify as transfer bodies.  Communities can be communities of geography or communities of interest. 

Being brutally frank, it is not always straightforward engaging with public bodies in a meaningful way.  It makes sense to be able to enter into informal discussion before submitting a request.  This is strongly encouraged in Scottish Government guidance to Public bodies  It is not always easy to engage in.

Community Assets need to be that, not liabilities.  Building an economic case for your plans is vital.

Any group considering Asset Transfer whether ownership, lease or other arrangement is strongly encouraged to get in touch with me, Sandy Mathers, Development Officer at ACVO TSI to consult and discuss further – please get in touch via email at sandy.mathers@acvo.org.uk