At the Community Economic Development Conference held in February 2010 in Waitakere City, UK presenter Annemarie Naylor regaled delegates with inspiring stories involving the asset transfer of facilities from councils to communities.

Annemarie Naylor Di Jennings

Annemarie manages the Asset Transfer Unit that is led and managed by the Development Trusts Association - the UK's leading network of community enterprise practitioners. The Asset Transfer Unit helps to empower local people and organisations to transform land and buildings into vibrant community spaces. They provide expert advice, guidance and support concerning the transfer of under-used land and buildings from the public sector to community ownership and management - helping organisations to develop those assets and deliver long-term social, economic and environmental benefits.

A key development in taking this agenda forward in the UK was “Making Assets Work: The Quirk Review of Community Management and Ownership of Public Assets”, published in 2007. This research recognised that the over-riding goal and the primary objective of asset transfer is community empowerment rather than “optimising the use of public assets”. The Quirk Review was a watershed event that was followed up by a comprehensive implementation plan of findings.

What are the advantages of asset transfer?

• Enhances the potential of community management and ownership of assets to effect community empowerment.
• Increases security and independence of community organisations so that they are better able to meet the needs of the communities they serve
• Enables greater access to better facilities that respond to needs of local people
• Enables organisations to diversify their income streams, for instance through taking loans to develop social enterprises that trade directly with business and members of the public.
• Can enable significant savings for local authorities. A council owned asset can be a liability for taxpayers - but transfer to a community organisation opens up opportunities for access to new funding and enterprise opportunities that change it from a liability to an asset.
• Buildings being transferred can be used for training and social enterprise incubation and thus help to strengthen the local economy, provide local employment and profits can be used for ongoing community wellbeing purposes.

What about the risks?

The Quirk review found that “The benefits of community management and ownership of assets can outweigh the risks and often the opportunity costs, and if there is a rational and thorough consideration of these, there are no substantive impediments to the transfer of public assets to communities. There are risks but they can be minimised and managed. The secret is all parties working together. This needs political will, managerial imagination and a more business focused approach from the public and community sectors.”

Asset transfer opportunities for NZ

In New Zealand, assets returned through Treaty settlements illustrate the concept of collective/community ownership so the idea of asset transfer is not altogether foreign to us. In Auckland there are current concerns that the regional governance restructure will pool community assets in a CCO (council controlled organisation) – and that may enable community assets to be readily sold off to the private sector. As I understand it, these assets are currently held by councils on behalf of the people, so if the ownership is to be transferred anywhere there is a good case to be made for transfer to the community sector where the assets can be utilised to enhance community wellbeing, not to the private sector where they would be used for the private profit of a few financial elites.

At this time, there is an opportunity to point politicians and policy makers to the UK experience that demonstrates wins for both councils and communities when assets are transferred to communities. It is important that this does not happen in a top down way and that the asset does not become a liability for the community organisation. And it is clear this is not for every community, it is a journey that requires both local leadership and commitment. But the UK experience indicates that asset transfer can work particularly well in so called “deprived” communities where there is a sense of urgency to make positive change.

In the UK, the recession has meant that many town main street shops have become vacant and “meanwhile leases” have been developed where there are no immediate potential paying tenants. Commercial spaces are being made available for short term for community that contribute to town centre vitality - but who would otherwise be unable to afford normal commercial rents. This kind of creative thinking benefits community groups, landlords and residents.

In Scotland, “community right to buy” legislation enable communities first option on the sale of public or private assets. This legislation enables community groups to identify strategically located buildings or parks that have the potential to be used for community purposes. Could this be useful legislation to consider in the New Zealand context? There is no shortage of ideas and food for thought around creative utilisation of assets to benefit our communities. Maybe a starting point could be to request a stock take of council owned assets in your area. Then consider what opportunities they could offer if they were brought into community ownership. Asset transfer sounds radical – but there is ample evidence that it works!

For further information:

• UK Asset Transfer Unit website
• Community Right to Buy in Scotland
• The Meanwhile Use Project
• Annemarie Naylor's and other speakers' presentations to the Community Economic Development Conference in February 2010 can be downloaded form the CED Conference website (Proceedings > Workshops 2)

Our thanks to Di Jennings of Community Waitakere for this article.