REDP: Consultations and responses on community rights to challenge and buy

Regional Equality & Diversity Partnership

Consultations and responses on community rights to challenge and buy

Date: 12/8/2011
Summary: On 4 February 2011, Decentralisation Minister Greg Clark opened a consultation on how revolutionary new rights for communities should work in practice. The Community Right to Challenge and Community Right to Buy are two key elements of the Localism Bill, designed to hand power back to local people. They will enshrine in law the opportunity for community and voluntary groups to have a greater say over what happens in their local area.

Under the Community Right to Buy, local groups will have a legal right to nominate any vital community asset – including local shops, pubs, libraries and leisure centres – to be assessed for recording on a ‘most wanted’ list by the local council. The asset could then be listed for five years. In that time, the owner of a listed asset will have to tell the council if they intend to sell, which will trigger a window of opportunity or ‘community countdown’, giving people time to prepare their business plan and raise the funds they need to make a credible bid before it goes on the open market.

The Community Right to Challenge opens the door to a transformation in the way that local public services are run. It will give community or voluntary sector groups, as well as parish councils and council employees, new powers to challenge and take over a local service. This could include running children’s centres, social care services and even improving local transport links. Under the new law, councils must respond to this challenge and consider the positive impact the proposal could have on the community. If the proposal is turned down the council must publish the reasons for this. This new right puts voluntary and charity groups on the front foot when it comes to running public services and has the potential to open up new revenue for them.

Both consultations closed on 3 May 2011.

A summary of responses to the consultation on the Community Right to Challenge was published on 2 August 2011.

Click here for announcement

Click here for consultation on Community Right to Challenge

Click here for summary of responses to the Community Right to Challenge

Click here for consultation on Community Right to Buy

Source: edf.org.uk

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