This document sets out the government’s plan to promote the transfer of assets to communities. The plan challenges councils to maximise the transfer of public assets in order to make services more responsive and create more confident empowered communities with greater civic spirit.The intention is to launch forty demonstration projects and provide councils with the tools and training they need so that they can give every community the opportunity to tackle their local priorities, whether those are about enhancing the local environment, alleviating poverty or raising people’s aspirations. Councils are being encouraged to bid for one of the pilot projects and a 400,000 pound grant.

Assets that might be transferred to communities include: swimming baths,redundant police stations, old hospital sites, empty shopping parades, closed down pubs on estates and leisure centres. It is estimated that many of the country’s 9,000 village and community halls and 4,500 community centres could be run by local communities.

The document is available at:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1510746