Empowerment Act: Asset Transfer consultation published

The Scottish Government has published the consultation for the Asset Transfer section of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act. 

The Asset Transfer Consultation on Draft Regulations seeks your views on the procedures for making and dealing with asset transfer requests - along with the review and appeals process and on the registers of land which relevant authorities must publish. 

The Asset Transfer section of the Act enables community bodies to apply to buy, lease, manage or simply use land and buildings owned by public authorities. The request to do so must be granted unless the public authority has "reasonable grounds" not to. In addition, local authorities and other public authorities must publish and maintain a list of assets which can be subject to asset transfer requests.

The Consultation Paper provides background around this part of the Act, and also highlights aspects of good practice, valuation of assets and a summary of the Asset Transfer process itself.

The consultation is open to any individual or organisation in Scotland. It seeks your views on:

• Details on the land registers, including what types of land will be exempt.
• Information that should be available to community organisations as part of the process.
• The requirements placed upon community organisations who wish to make an Asset Transfer request.
• The time line of the Asset Transfer request process, and the details of any review which may take place.

You can read the full Consultation Paper here, a summary version here and take the online consultation here. The closing date for responses is 20 June 2016.

SCDC has details of all of the Act's ongoing consultations, as well our detailed briefings, on our dedicated Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act page.