Photo by JuliaC2006 CC-BY 2.0
England’s public land and buildings are at risk of being lost for ever unless urgent action is taken to protect them, a new report by Locality has warned.
The report Places and Spaces – The future of community asset ownership urgently calls for £1bn worth of investment to save the nation’s public assets from being lost for good.
According to the report, austerity measures and cuts to local authority budgets have meant that hard-pressed councils are having to sell, cut or shut crucial parts of local community infrastructures.
£1bn asset investment programme
Transferring or selling assets to communities can preserve them for public use and Locality is calling on central government and other funders to invest in a new community asset investment programme for community groups and organisations to take over the management or ownership of local public land and buildings.
Community ownership of assets also promotes resilience and sustainable growth at a local level and can give local people a greater stake in their local areas and have control of the activities and services that matter to them.
Locality Chief Executive Tony Armstrong said: “Cuts to local authority budgets have meant that many councils are looking to sell off their land and buildings – like community centres, libraries or sports centres – to the highest bidder in an attempt to raise badly-needed cash.
“This is a very short-sighted view which puts communities at risk of permanently losing important public buildings and spaces for the sake of a quick buck.
“Transferring public assets to communities can safeguard them for generations to come and we urgently need the government and other funders to step in to support organisations to do exactly that.”
To read the full report, click
here.
To see Bristol City Council's Assets of Community Value register, click
here. 
