General Details
The Assets of Community Value (England) Regulations 2012 provide local community groups with an opportunity to bid for buildings or other land when they come onto the open market, which they consider important to their community’s social well-being.
The Act does this by providing an early warning system of an intention by an owner to sell these assets and this means the sale to be delayed for up to six months to allow a community group the time to put together a bid to buy the asset.
The provisions do not require the landowner to sell the asset to a community group nor force any sale; they just provide a window of opportunity for a community group to prepare and submit a bid to buy the asset.
What types of property can be nominated?
The right applies to public and privately owned land (and there are very few exceptions), residential land (including land connected to a residence and land used by statutory undertakers for transport and utility purposes) being examples.
The Localism Act defines an “asset of community value” as an asset that ‘furthers the social well-being or social interests of the local community’.
Communities need to demonstrate that the asset’s main use falls within this definition and show that it is realistic to think that the main use of the asset can continue to meet this definition (even if the exact use is different).
Alternatively, communities could demonstrate that the main use of the asset in the recent past has fallen within this definition and it is realistic to think that there is a time in the next 5 years when its main use could again fall within this definition.
Who can nominate?
A community group (a Parish Council or a voluntary or community body with a local connection, i.e., an unincorporated body whose members include at least 21 individuals and which does not distribute any surplus it makes to its members, a charity, etc.) may make a ‘community nomination’ to the Council nominating a building or other land for inclusion in the Council’s list of assets of community value.
Nominations must include
- A description of the nominated building or land including its proposed boundaries
- A statement of all the information, which the nominator has with regard to the names of the current occupants of the land and the names of all those holding a freehold or leasehold stake in the land
- The nominator’s reason for thinking that the asset is of community value
- Evidence that the nominator is eligible to make a community nomination
Contact Details
E mail : Using this form
Post : Assistant Director - Legal Services, Rochford District Council, Council Offices, South Street , Rochford, Essex, SS4 1BW
At the current time no assets in the District have been registered as “Assets of Community Value”