Community asset transfer

Stage one

The applicant organisation should contact our Community Asset Transfer Officer at communityassets@southlanarkshire.gov.uk and discuss their proposal.

The applicant should provide the following which will allow us to assess the capability and suitability of the organisation:

• information on the property/land in which they are interested and their aspirations for it
• their organisations governance document, minutes from their last AGM, and their most recent set of audited year-end accounts

Newly formed organisations may not have all this information available, so a copy of their governance document and confirmation of an organisation bank account will do.

Stage two

Internal enquiries will be made to determine the current use of the land/property. It may be clear from the start that the proposed use may not be successful as the current or proposed council usage is more relevant to the public it serves. In addition, we may also refuse an application if there has been an unsuccessful CAT proposal for the land/property in the last two years.

Stage three

If the proposal is confirmed as suitable at this stage, then it's up to the applicant to take the next steps:

• look at the viability of their plan
• carry out engagement work with the local residents who may be impacted
• develop either a feasibility study or business plan which will show that consideration has been given to how they are going to afford to take on and maintain the facility or space
•  submit a full application to us, making an offer of what they are willing to pay for the lease or purchase of the building.

Stage four

The application will be reviewed and if it's confirmed to be in order it will be validated. At this point, the official clock starts, and there will be a period of six months in which we must make a decision on the application. During this time we are unable to sell or dispose of the land/property.

The application will be made available on the council's planning portal where local residents and other interested parties will be able to comment on the application. The application will be open for comments for 20 working days and once closed the applicant will be made aware of all comments and will be able to respond.

Once the public consultation is complete the application will be considered by the Community Asset Transfer working group which will mark the application on the merits of what community benefits it offers. Community benefit is calculated by how the suggested proposal offers social, economic, or environmental improvements, and by taking their impact into consideration allows the market value of the land/property to be reduced. The scoring matrixes used for this process are available to view on the website. The higher the score, the greater the discount that will be considered on the lease or purchase price of the land/property.

This information is then submitted to the Community Asset Transfer panel consisting of senior council employees. The panel will decide if they approve or reject the application by considering the full application along with all accompanying documents and the comments of the working group.

The panel's decision will be taken to the Housing and Technical Resources Committee where the decision will be considered and endorsed or overturned by the elected committee officials.

Stage four of the process should take six months in total. We aim to meet the deadline, but where this is not possible, we will arrange to extend the dates.