By Richard Johnstone | 3 February 2015
The range of community rights introduced by the coalition government to allow local people to run public services and take over assets like pubs and post offices should be strengthened to encourage their use, MPs have said.
The communities and local government select committee said today the programme had so far had mixed results. Use of the ‘Community Right to Bid’, which allows assets to be protected, has been popular, with more than 1,800 successful listings of community assets. However, around half of all subsequent attempts to buy assets have been unsuccessful.
Among the other powers, the ‘Right to Challenge’, which allows people to bid to provide local services, and the ‘Right to Build’, which was intended to allow for building of new homes, have not been used to their full extent.
Committee chair Clive Betts said opportunities to run a pub, a post office or a community centre make a real contribution to local life.
‘But the government’s community rights programme currently puts too many obstacles in the way for most local people to turn this opportunity into reality,’ he said.
‘Giving communities more time to organise and arrange finance, making the rights less complicated to use and amending planning controls would give people the chance of a greater say in the running of prized local assets and services.’
Among the recommendations was a call for the time period under which a community can develop a bid for assets to be extended.
Currently, community groups can have an asset classified as being of community value. As well as pubs and post offices, those listed include football grounds and markets.
If a listed asset then comes up for sale, a six-month pause is triggered to allow the community to bid.
However, today’s report said this did not allow areas sufficient time to put together an offer, and should be increased to nine months.
Among other proposed reforms was a call for the Community Right to Build to form part of the government’s wider neighbourhood planning process. This would help reduce the complexity of the scheme by allowing any proposals to be approved simultaneously, rather than through a separate referendum.
MPs also heard that, while the right to challenge to take over and run public services could help create discussions with the local council, it was viewed as a ‘nuclear option’. The report urged both Whitehall and local authorities to consider how to involve communities more routinely in the commissioning and delivery of local services to avoid this ‘potentially confrontational route’.
Responding to the report, communities minister Stephen Williams said: ‘Up and down the country, communities are now having a real say with more than 3,000 uses of the rights so far including regulars taking over their local pub or shop to ambitious plans for new development, new jobs and better targeted services.
‘Over 600 pubs are now listed as community assets and last week we announced further changes to planning law to provide even greater protection for pubs which play a crucial role at the heart of our communities.’
