Assets of community value

This briefing paper provides information about the process of nominating ‘assets of community value’, found in the Localism Act 2011. Assets of community value can be nominated by parish councils or by groups with a connection with the community. If the nomination is accepted, local groups will be given time to come up with a bid for the asset if and when it is sold. These provisions are also known as the ‘community right to bid’.

Section 3 of the briefing provides details of the community right to buy included in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, which is currently before Parliament. This would give the nominating body first refusal on an asset of community value, once the owner had decided to sell the property.

The right to bid only applies when an asset’s owner decides to dispose of it. There is no compulsion on the owner to sell it, and when they sell the property they may sell to whomever they choose. The right to bid, likewise, cannot be used to force an owner to sell a property.

The briefing also addresses other community powers regarding land and property, including the community right to reclaim land, community asset transfer, the Right to Contest and the proposed Right to Regenerate, requests for Compulsory Purchase Orders, and the Government’s One Public Estate programme.

The community right to bid exists in England only. This briefing paper also provides some details of the community right to buy in Scotland, and the process of community asset transfer in Wales. No comparable procedure to the community right to bid exists in Northern Ireland.

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