COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP Community ownership needs local authority support

Headshot of Mark Walton

Mark is the founder and Director of Shared Assets, an infrastructure organisation working to create a socially just future through practical projects that build new relationships between people and the land.

Mark outlines the possible government initiatives towards community ownership. “What is increasingly clear however is that funding and support for community asset ownership is more likely to be delivered at a local than a national level for the foreseeable future. This gives local authorities a key role in supporting, funding and facilitating the transfer of land and buildings to communities.” 

Community Ownership Fund 

In December 2024, the government announced that an anticipated final round of the Community Ownership Fund (COF) would not go ahead. The COF was a £150m government-funded programme to provide grants to local communities across the UK to take control of assets, amenities or facilities at risk of closure - from parks to pubs, and lidos to libraries. It was closed with £15m still unspent and communities across the country who had been planning their applications, were left in uncertainty as to when, or whether, a new programme will be launched. 

A campaign by a group of local and national leaders led by Power to Change called on the government to back community ownership by making £150m of public funding available in the spending review, and leveraging £350m of other forms of finance like social investment. However, the Spending Review did not include any such commitment to establish a new community ownership fund. As noted by Locality CEO Tony Armstrong, this feels like a missed opportunity to support local grassroots organisations to use “community ownership to revitalise local neighbourhoods, drive economic growth and reignite pride in place”. 

Since its launch in 2021, the COF has awarded £135m to 409 projects across the UK, with 283 projects in England, 57 projects in Scotland, 30 projects in Wales, and 39 projects in Northern Ireland. Groups could apply for capital funding to purchase or lease a local asset and/or help cover refurbishments. The programme provided pre- and post-application support through a consortium of delivery partners led by Locality and including Shared Assets, Plunkett UK, Cooperatives UK, Cwmpas, Development Trusts Association Scotland, Development Trusts Association Wales, Development Trusts Northern Ireland, Architectural Heritage Fund, and Sporting Assets. 

Shared Assets has supported nearly 40 groups to make applications, or to secure their funding and deliver their projects. These include community organisations and parish councils working to secure the future of assets such as stables, nature reserves, parks and disused buildings. Their projects aim to transform them from disused or underused spaces into learning, therapeutic, enterprising and social community assets. Pre-application support helped applicants not just to make the applications, but to support them to develop long-term sustainable business models and ensure they had good governance in place to enable them to create sustainable jobs, educational opportunities, and improve the health, wellbeing and environment of the local communities. 

Despite the failure to deliver a new national community ownership fund, the spending review did make commitments to provide £500m of investment in 25 new “neighbourhood trailblazers”, to establish a "new local growth fund" and to specifically allocate resources to 350 deprived communities across the UK. 

New neighbourhood level investments 

The English Devolution White Paper also promises: “a new community ‘right to buy’ for valued community assets, such as empty shops, pubs and community spaces” in order to “empower local people to bring community spaces back into community ownership and end the blight of empty premises on our high streets”. 

The exact delivery mechanisms of these new neighbourhood level investments, and the details of any new or strengthened community rights remain uncertain. The White Paper currently only mentions assets such as “local news outlets, community cafes, youth clubs, pubs, historic buildings, libraries or sport facilities” and does not mention the right to purchase land. 

It is also based on so-called Assets of Community Value, whose definition is backward and limited, pertaining to assets whose main use is or has recently been to further the social wellbeing of the local community or could do so in the future. These ‘social interests’ are narrowly defined as cultural, recreational and sporting interests, definitions which prevent communities from purchasing land or buildings that may have no history of community use, but which could be used to help them deliver future ambitions, including economic, democratic, or social interests. 

What is increasingly clear however is that funding and support for community asset ownership is more likely to be delivered at a local than a national level for the foreseeable future. 

This gives local authorities a key role in supporting, funding and facilitating the transfer of land and buildings to communities. This may seem like a challenging task for them, given the financial difficulties facing local councils. Last year 19 were given permission by the government to sell assets to fund day to day delivery of services. In these circumstances, it may be hard to argue that councils should be funding communities to purchase assets, supporting them to do so, or making asset transfers at less than market value. 

However, there is a powerful argument that community ownership and community led development provides benefits that other forms of ownership and development do not. Power to Change suggest that national and local government should back “the people who are bringing empty high streets shops back into use, not the distant owners who leave the buildings people care about empty […] the people who are clubbing together to save their local, not the people who want to knock it down […] the people who care for our green spaces and rivers, not those who litter and pollute them” and that they should empower and support “communities to take back control and make their places better.” 

This is particularly the case for the communities most marginalised from the land and property system such as refugees, migrants and communities of colour, for whom asset ownership can open new opportunities, new forms of connection and belonging, and the power of property ownership. 

Key roles for local authorities 

Research we undertook with partners from across Europe as part of the recent Horizon 2020 Ruralisation project identified three key roles that local authorities can play to support communities to access or own land and buildings: landowner, facilitator and regulator. 

As a landowner they can invest by acting as a partner in a co-acquisition or purchasing land and buildings that communities are unable to raise finance for in the short term but could fundraise for over a longer term. They can manage underutilised land or buildings in ways that enable them to be used by local communities for mutual benefit. They can also act strategically to map publicly owned assets, consult on their use, and support groups to quantify the costs and benefits of their use. 

As a facilitator local authorities have considerable convening power to bring different departments and public, private and community interests together to deliver shared objectives. They can intermediate between different stakeholders, help to raise awareness of the value of community ownership and management, and ensure that the data they hold is accessible. They could also provide specific support to community ownership projects through local business support and economic development programmes. 

As a regulator local councils have a key role in planning, and in administering the regulatory tools at their disposal. They can also be a powerful catalyst by providing funding and a supportive policy environment. Finally they can advocate for community ownership and management, using institutional channels to influence national policy by communicating local needs and realities, and by pointing out where national policies are unhelpful or incoherent to the community ownership agenda. 

The centrality of local authorities to community asset ownership is illustrated by Platform Places. Their Local Property Partnerships Pilot Programme convenes and supports councils, communities and asset owners, to create Local Property Partnerships in their town centre in order to bring buildings into community use or ownership, for local benefit, for the long term. 

What can be done better? 

Organic Lea

At Shared Assets, we want to see a strengthened community right to buy that includes land specifically and a broader, more forward-looking definition of assets of community value. We believe that this should be backed by longer term and more consistent national funding programmes, with a simpler application process and more accessible support, especially for the most marginalised communities. One successful example is Organic Lea, a community owned market garden on a local authority owned ex-nursery site. 

In the absence of such a national programme of support, and with funds increasingly being targeted at local regeneration, it is important for local authorities to step into their roles as landowners, facilitators and regulators to foster entrepreneurship and empower communities through community asset ownership.