Scotland leading the UK on community asset transfer powers
Scotland is leading the rest of the UK in giving rural communities the power to take over land and buildings from public authorities, according to the first four-nation study into community asset transfer.
Rural Assets: Policy and Practice Insights from the Devolved Nations, led by Dr Dani Hutcheon of the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, examines the barriers rural communities across the UK face in safeguarding community facilities and land.
The two-year project, funded by the British Academy and Nuffield Foundation, was led by Glasgow Caledonian and involved researchers and experts from Bangor University, the University of the Highlands and Islands Perth College, Anglia Ruskin University, the James Hutton Institute, and CommunityThinking.org.
In terms of policy and practice, Scotland was found to be the most advanced nation in the UK for community asset transfer legislation, with calls from England, Wales and Northern Ireland for similar rights, most notably the introduction of a Community Right to Buy.
Dr Hutcheon said: “There is no doubt the rest of the UK is looking at Scotland and there is substantial learning to be passed on to the other nations in terms of the impact of the legislation.
"However, there are a number of barriers to rural community asset acquisition in Scotland, most notably a lack of capacity within rural communities, related to smaller populations and therefore limited pools of volunteers.
“Succession planning was found to be challenging for rural communities, due to ageing populations and the outmigration of young people, which proved problematic when trying to demonstrate the future sustainability of projects in asset acquisition applications.”
The study, which was published today, has already had a significant political impact.
Dr Hutcheon is now a member of the Scottish Government National Asset Transfer Working Group and works closely to feed evidence to the national Community Empowerment Team.
She has also been invited to deliver evidence from the project at a formal parliamentary proceeding at the NI Assembly at Stormont this autumn.
Meanwhile, the research has been fed into the Welsh Government, which is looking at the introduction of Community Asset Transfer legislation.