Communities at the Centre: The Journey to Community Empowerment

1. Other examples Asset Transfer: Communities at the Centre #CommunitiesAtTheCentre

2. COSS is part of the Development Trusts Association for Scotland (DTAS) • COSS is a Scottish government funded programme, adviser led across 32 LA areas, set up to : • help community-based groups take ownership of assets for community benefit . • support local authorities and other public authorities to transfer assets in to community ownership www.dtascommunityownership.org.uk

3. Community Ownership in Scotland • 480,000* acres of land in community ownership • (2.5% of Scotland) • 75,891 assets (2,740 community assets) • 2,718 organisations • Estimated value of £1.45 billion (£.65 billion) • Most common uses: housing, community halls/centres, amenity space (e.g. parks), business lets, cafes/restaurants, educational, grocery shops, heritage, renewable energy, sports and fitness • Two thirds in remote rural • 1 in 20 in urban areas (38.9% of population) Source: Community Ownership in Scotland: a baseline study, DTAS, 2012 * Scottish Government – 1M Acre Target 2015

4. But what do they do? Provide childcare, make benches, manage office space, teach ICT, support small businesses, cook healthy food, recycle paper, support other community organisations, employ people with special needs, manage community centres, run cinemas, build, sell and rent out houses, undertake youth work, repair and sell bicycles, provide home help schemes for older people, run community transport schemes, lobby Councils for improvements on behalf of local people, undertake consultancy work, run schools for excluded young people, manage parks and play areas, own restaurants and cafes and pizzerias, have festivals & fun days & Dickensian Christmas Fairs, run credit unions, support neighbourhood management and other local initiatives, prisoner of war camps and Scottish government nuclear bunker development, set up social enterprises, homework clubs, DJ Workshops, run community energy projects, five a side football, manage Healthy Living Centres, support local artists, swimming pools and gyms, provide wedding and conference facilities, create web-sites, regenerate market town centres, prisoner of war camps and Scottish government nuclear bunker development, teach basic skills English and Maths, run bed and breakfasts, lend money, employ local people, run play schemes, sports days, teach construction skills, manage sports facilities, provide a refuge for women, publish community newsletters, teach catering skills, support community radio, make soap and bath stuff, run community arts projects, manage renewable energy schemes, build green and affordable homes, manage grant funding, manage local markets and market halls, run community cohesion projects, manage street ranger schemes, install CCTV, own and manage shops, leisure centres, benefit advice and debt counselling, promote tourism, manage heritage sites, skills training, undertake social audits, own and run pubs and bars, build and manage a BMX track, run Archaeology survey companies, provide sets for film and television productions, manage allotments, make chocolate (and sell it to Selfridges!), build boats, run Tourist Information Centres, sheltered and special need housing, own abattoirs, provide ferry services, own cinemas and theatres and museums, event management, own a security company, run a taxi service, grow and sell food, support people to find work, own and manage harbours, deliver high speed broadband, smokehouses, airports, doulas… etcetc

5. Journey to the Act • 2008 The Financial Crisis • 2009 Community Empowerment Action Plan • 2010 Disposal of Land by Local Authorities (Scotland) Regulations gave: discretionary powers to LAs to dispose of land to community organisations at less than best financial consideration provided a local authority is satisfied that it is achieving “best value” through economic, social, environment, health or social benefit

6. Journey continues.... • 2011 The Christie Commission • 2012 Regeneration Strategy • 2014 Land Reform Review • 2014 Changes to the Public Finance Manual

7. 2014 Changes to the Scottish Public Finance Manual “Where there are wider public benefits consistent with the principles of Best Value to be gained from a transaction, disposing bodies should consider disposal of assets at less than Market Value. This includes supporting the acquisition of assets by community bodies, where appropriate.” SPFM 2014

8. Culminating in Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act Aims: • To help to empower community bodies through the ownership of land and buildings • To strengthen their voices in the decisions that matter to them • To improve the process of Community Planning leading to better outcomes for communities • Ensure partnership working between service providers and communities

9. Current position of Act Bill became enacted in July 24th 2015 BUT! • The different parts of the Act are likely to come into force at different times.  • In most cases secondary legislation (orders and regulations) and guidance need to be developed before the legislation can come into effect.  • This will be done through a process of engagement and co-production with people affected by the legislation.  • It is expected that most parts of the Act to come into effect by summer 2016.

10. Eleven Parts to the Act: 1-4 Part 1:National Outcomes - provides a statutory basis for the use of “National Outcomes”. Part 2:Community Planning – including Local Outcomes Improvement Plans and Locality Plans Part 3:Participation Requests - allows community bodies to become involved in delivery of public services. Part 4: Community Right to Buy - makes a range of changes to the community right to buy land, amending the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003including extending to urban areas.

11. Eleven Parts to the Act: 5-8 • Part 5: Asset Transfer Requests - provides for community bodies to take on assets from the public sector. • Part 6: Delegation of Forestry Commission Functions - allows for different types of community body to be involved in forestry leasing. • Part 7: Football Clubs – facilitates Supporter Involvement and ownership • Part 8 : Common Good - makes a number of reforms to the system of common good.

12. Eleven Parts to the Act: 9-11 • Part 9: Allotments – updates and simplifies legislation • Part 10: Participation in Public Decision Making – promotes and facilitates public participation in Public Sector decisions. • Part 11:.Business Rates - allows local authorities to set their own reliefs for business rates.

13. Part 2 – Community PlanningLOCAL OUTCOME IMPROVEMENT PLANS • Each CPP must prepare and publish a LOIP which should set out: • Local outcomes to which priority is to be given by CPP with a view to achieving the improvements of outcomes • A description of the proposed improvement • The period within which the improvement is to be achieved • Description of the needs and circumstances of persons residing in the area to which the plan relates

14. So how are you going to do this? • Already have Locality Plans • The outcomes in your LOIP must link with this • Community must be at the centre of these • How do you find out what a community’s needs are?

15. Planning for Real

16. Maud story • Lack of employment opportunities • Difficulty in accessing services – poor transport links • Problem with empty shop units • Centre of village becoming an eyesore • Lack of leisure facilities • No incentive for people to move to Maud

17. Planning for Real identified: • Develop a centrepiece for the village • Generate a sense of community and ownership • Encourage social inclusion of all groups in the village • Create sustainable and financially viable facilities for the benefit of the community • Create local employment opportunities • Give the village back its heart

18. MAUD VILLAGE TRUST • Community Garden as a focal point at entrance to village • Partnership with NHS to create Service Centre to enable access to services - managed by the Trust • Leisure facilities – Old Mart Gym has 9 staff members, 850 members from 12 – 80, GP referrals • Resource Centre housing Dial A Bus (15 staff) – rural transport, patient transport, training ; other businesses. • Cafe - 5 permanent, 4 part-time staff • Supports other organisations in the village

19. MAUD VILLAGE TRUST Conversation Cafe Initiative – first singing group

20. Other examples Pauline Gallagher

21. A community SHAPES ITS FUTURE the Neilston experience of collaborative plan-making

22. An ordinary place…. Strong community, but losing identity and experiencing increasing inequality

23. NEILSTON DEVELOPMENT TRUST(NDT) Our vision has 3 key themes: • Physical excellence PLACE • Cultural & Social growth PEOPLE • Sustainable development PROSPERITY Underpinning these: • Community connectivity & participation • Economic development

24. NEILSTON FUTURES: PLACE A shared vision of our future

25. NEILSTON FUTURES: PEOPLE The Bank: Community Right to Buy

26. NEILSTON FUTURES: PEOPLE The Bank - open for business!

27. NETWORKS AND PARTNERSHIPS The long game! • East Ren Council - all relevant depts • Barrhead HA - support from the start! • Voluntary Action East Ren - ditto! • Community Council and all community networks • Community Health & Care P/ship • Colleges and Universities • National networks and policy forums

28. NEILSTON FUTURES: PROSPECTS Neilston Community Windfarm LLP • Joint venture partnership between commercial windfarm developer and NDT in 10mw, £15.6m project • NDT has 28.3% stakeholding in the development • £10m approx. income to Neilston over life of project

29. What the Empowerment Act provides for: • the strengthening of community planning to give communities more of a say in how public services are to be planned and provided • new rights enabling communities to identify needs and issues and request action to be taken on these, and • the extension of the community right to buy or otherwise have greater control over assets. • Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) replaced by Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP) source SCDC 2015

30. Locality Plans • Locality Plans are also introduced in the Act. These are not the same as LOIPs, as they are for smaller areas where there are ‘significantly poorer outcomes’ than elsewhere • This raises question of SCALE and perception. If LOIP = SOA in terms of geographical coverage, meaningful community engagement is going to be almost impossible • Neighbourhood scale (we suggest around 10,000) may be more the scale at which people relate to place and each other

31. Neilston - where are we?

32. East Renfrewshire CPP area by electoral wards

33. East Ren Council (ERC) Single Outcome Agreement

34. Neilston scale….. • Population 6,000 • 2 primary schools • GP, dentist, optician • PO & range of shops • Hall, Leisure Centre, Library • 10% ERC’s unemployed population • 43% children in worst datazone living in poverty • Housing disrepair in heritage area • Fragile town centre

35. Community Planning: what we did • Our plan not a Community Plan in the CPP sense, • It’s a PLACE PLAN (although NDT acts on all fronts, as it responds to local need and opportunity…) • No reason why the CP (or LOIP) should not be a place plan too ( i.e. integrated, resource efficient, locally accessible) as I hope to show. • The right SCALE • Respecting the ‘PLACENESS’ of social experience

36. Why place matters… Nov 2015 1919

37. Neilston’s planning journey

38. Neilston Charter: making sure local people are at the centre Communications Engagement

39. Aligning our aspirations to national policy

40. An example…. • Housing does not appear as such in the SOA • It does appear in our plan… and is in SPG • It is NOT a high priority in the Housing Investment Plan… need and demand are defined in different terms, according to statistical analysis at local authority level • However a properly integrated Locality Plan would address these anomalies. • We’re currently at the stage of trying!

41. We rightly focused on PLACE because that’s where people ARE …..But there’s EVERY REASON TO include local service provision as well NATIONAL COMMUNITY PLANNING FRAMEWORK THE LOCAL OUTCOME IMPROVEMENT PLAN CHARTER ADVISORY GROUP NEILSTON LOCALITY PLANNING GROUP

42. LOCAL BY DEFAULT: how to get the outcomes we all want Capacity building Anchor Organisations THRIVING COMMUNITIES Local budgeting Local democracy Inequalities Resource

43. THE FUTURE: OURS TO MAKE! www.neilstontrust.co.uk

44. Other examples Asset Transfer: Communities at the Centre #CommunitiesAtTheCentre