Statistics for the Use of Assets of Community Value so far and Proposals for Future Reform

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Chapter 9

Statistics for the Use of Assets of Community Value so far and Proposals for Future Reform

STATISTICS FOR THE USE OF THE ASSETS OF COMMUNITY VALUE PROVISIONS SO FAR

9.1 The latest Government figures available at the time of writing were that more than 3,000 assets had been listed as ACVs, including 1,200 pubs and over 256 local sporting assets (including football stadiums, bowling greens and cricket pavilions).¹

9.2 Towards the end of 2015, the Government figures were that more than 2,600 assets had been listed as ACVs, including nearly 900 pubs, and that 150 assets had been transferred into community ownership,²including approximately 40 pubs.³

¹Press release, ‘Community Rights hit a landmark 5,000 uses’, Department for Communities and

Local Government and Marcus Jones MP, 7 March 2016 (www.gov.uk/government/news/ community-rights-hit-a-landmark-5000-uses). The press release states that the data on ACVs was based on information obtained from lists of ACVs published on local authority websites, where available, at the time of production. It is therefore likely to be an understatement of the number of ACVs, as some local authorities may not publish their list of ACVs on a website or the list may not be entirely up to date. See also the answer given by Marcus Jones MP (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) on 6 June 2016 to one of the Topical Questions, House of Commons Hansard, vol 611 (https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-06-06/debates/1606064000026/TopicalQuestions).

²Community Assets: written question no 13194, answered by Marcus Jones MP (Parliamentary

Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) on 28 October 2015 (www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-10-23/13194); see also Marcus Jones MP, House of Commons, Oral Answers to Questions, 9 November 2015, col 10.

³Press release, ‘New £3.6 million programme to help communities take control of their local pub’,

Department for Communities and Local Government and Marcus Jones MP, 10 March 2016 (www.gov.uk/government/news/new-36-million-programme-to-help-communities-take-control-of-their-local-pub).

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300 Assets of Community Value: Law and Practice

9.3 The January 2015 report of the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee contained more detailed data on the use which had by that stage been made of the ACV provisions.⁴The Committee reported that, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government (reporting in December 2014),⁵since the ACV provisions came into operation in September 2012:

(a) more than 1,800 assets had been listed as ACVs, of which about 500 were pubs;⁶

(b) 122 groups had indicated an intention to bid and thereby triggered the 6-month moratorium period; and

(c) either nine or 11 assets⁷had been bought by community groups.

9.4 The Department for Communities and Local Government did, however, emphasise in its written evidence that there is currently no requirement for local authorities to inform the Department of the number of community assets listed, and therefore the Department had ascertained these figures to the best of its ability.⁸

9.5 Further research by one of the Committee’s own members based on freedom of information requests to local authorities revealed that, of the 122 groups which had triggered a moratorium, 60 were unsuccessful in their bid, 27 bids were at that stage outstanding and only 11 had so far resulted in a community buyout.⁹

⁴House of Commons, Communities and Local Government Committee, Community Rights, Sixth Report of Session 2014–15, HC 262 (The Stationery Office, 2 February 2015), pp 8 and 10.

⁵See the further written evidence submitted by the Department for Communities and Local Government to the Committee (CRS 46), December 2014, p 1 (data.parliament.uk/ writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/communities-and-local-government-committee/community-rights/written/16834.html).

⁶The figure of 600 pubs has also been quoted at this time. See Written Statement to Parliament, ‘Community Pubs’, from the Department for Communities and Local Government and Kris Hopkins MP, 26 January 2015.

⁷There were contradictory figures available (see paras 9.4–9.5).

⁸See the further written evidence submitted by the Department for Communities and Local Government to the Committee (CRS 46), December 2014, p 1. The conflicting figures referred to above bear witness to the difficulty of assembling authoritative statistics in this area. The lack of reliable statistics seems to conflict with the Government’s statement during the passage of the Bill through Parliament that there are arrangements in place that would allow a systematic collection of monitoring information for future policy review (Department for Communities and Local Government, Localism Bill: community right to buy – Impact assessment (DCLG Publications, January 2011), Summary: Intervention and Options (no printed page numbers but this is on the 5th page of the PDF)).

⁹This figure of 11 purchases was two more than the Department for Communities and Local
Government’s own figures (see para 9.3 (c)).

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Therefore, it appeared that almost 50% of attempts by community interest groups to buy ACVs were unsuccessful.¹⁰

9.6 The types of ACVs which had been listed as at January 2015 were as follows:¹¹

Type of asset Proportion of total listed Pub 31%

Other 12%

Community centre 8%

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