Community Assets & Buildings

What are community assets?

·                     Local residents with skills and talents that they wish to share for the pleasure and benefit of other residents

·                     Local residents who have the time and other resources to put into activities and events for the pleasure and benefit of others and who are prepared to work together to prevent what they see as developments which will have an adverse effect on the quality of life in the area

·                     Independent local community and voluntary organisations which are open to all local residents within the area as a whole or from the estate/neighbourhood the organisation covers and who agree with the aims of the organisation

·                     Services and activities that are provided by those independent organisations

·                     Buildings owned, leased or managed  by those independent organisations

Buildings

There are limits to the degree of community control over buildings owned by local community organisations:

·                     The memberships of community organisations with buildings are usually a small percentage of the area’s population.

·                     Leasehold ownership means that community ownership can be ended if the freeholder decides not to let renew the lease

·                     Licensed or management agreement occupation of premises means that community control can be ended the property owner

Are community assets different from public assets?

·                     Yes because these public assets are not owned by the local community in which they are sited

·                     Public assets are owned by public sector organisations which are in a continual process of deciding whether to retain their buildings

·                     Primary schools are not owned by the local community but by the local education authority; they are managed by Governors whose appointment processes mean that they may not be members of the local community. The Authority may decide to close the school.

·                     Lilian Baylis school site is a public asset site and buildings could be sold off to organisations in the private or non-community controlled voluntary sector

However,

·                     Most people consider buildings not owned by private profit organisations as  assets for community benefit and regard them as assets that can be put to community use when their specific uses comes to an end: e.g. former Lilian Baylis School site

Are the charitable and voluntary sector assets different  from community assets?

·                     Yes because voluntary sector own assets may not be controlled by local people through membership.

  • Museum of Garden History has sold off the freehold of the building in which a private school operates, transferring the asset from the voluntary sector to the private sector

  • Beaufoy Institute as a charitable foundation is managed by the Council as Trustees who wish to sell the building and site. It is only because of the diligence of local organisations, particularly the Settlement, which has ensured that if the foundation is restructured the sale proceeds will be available to benefit people, but the land and site could be sold off into the private sector.

What are the community and public asset buildings in the KOV area?

The list is by no means exhaustive but here are many of them:

·                     Lambeth Mission

·                     St Anselm's Church

·                     St Peter’s Church

·                     Archbishop Sumner School

·                     Walnut Tree Walk School

·                     Spring Gardens

·                     Archbishop’s Park

·                     Kennington Park

·                     Vauxhall Park

·                     Spring Gardens

·                     Roots & Shoots

·                     Vauxhall City Farm

·                     Vauxhall Spring Community Centre

·                     Kurdish Community Cultural Centre

·                     Riverside IT

·                     RCDT 20 Newburn St

·                     Scouts Building – Courtney St

·                     Alford Centre

·                     Ethelred Youth Club

·                     Ethelred Nursery

·                     Pory Hall

·                     China Walk Tenants Hall

·                     ADI

·                     Museum of Garden History

·                     St Mark’s Church

·                     St Ann’s Church

·                     All Nations Church

·                     Harleyford Gardens Community gardens

·                     Bonneville Community Centre

·                     Old Lambeth Walk Development Trust

·                     Former Lambeth Walk Slipper Baths housing Lambeth Walk Group Practice

·                     Durning Library

 

The Crisis of Community and Public Sector Assets

·                     There is a crisis in the KOV area regarding community and public assets and whether the community will benefit.

·                     As it is funded by the Private Finance Initiative the new Lilian Baylis School building is owned privately but used to provide a public service.

·                     Former Lilian Baylis site. What will the Council decide as the direction for the Deveopment Brief: retain as a public owned asset, sale to private sector, or sale/transfer to locally based voluntary organisations? The sale value of the site is estimated to be between £8-14m depending on whether the heritage listing is lifted (which is very unlikely). There are need refurbishment and repair costs on top to bring it back into use. If retained or sold for community uses then care has to be taken to ensure that such uses are complementary to existing community facilities and serices and not in competition, otherwise existing facilities and services will be jeopardised.

·                     Michael Tippett School – what will the Council propose for the site when the School moves?

·                     Kerrin Point site – this could involve the sale of public asset land to the private sector

·                     Beaufoy Institute. After legal opinion the Council Corporate Committee has now decided to seek Charity Commission approval to restructure the charitable trust, and to sell buildings and land to the private sector or to other organisations within the charitable and voluntary sectors. Given that it and the Charity Commission consider that only the original building is owned by the Trust, only the proceeds of its sale will be put to the benefit of the reorganised Trust, the Council keeping the proceeds of the sale of the rest of the site.

·                     Vauxhall Spring Community Centre is housed in a building owned by the Council which it wants to sell for redevelopment. It remains to be seen the extent to which the Centre is protected in the details of sale and funded to remain economically viable.

·                     Lambeth Council is marketing the former Lambeth Slipper Baths. While this will have no immediate effect on the Lambeth Walk Group Practice, it could jeopardise its long-term existence at the site as private owners seek to raise rent at the periodic rent reviews

·                     Churches upkeep and maintenance is a permanent struggle. St Peter’s needs to develop a sustainable income stream to prevent its closure. Lambeth Mission needs to either redevelop or refurbish itself. St Anselm's still has problems over the running costs of its complex assortment of buildings.

·                     The former Scout Hall in Courtney St is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and while the Settlement has been considering taking on a long-term lease, a final decision has not been taken.

·                     Community and voluntary organisations with buildings have a continual struggle over management, maintenance, refurbishment and adaptation or redevelopment as well as funding for core running costs and activities

·                     There are tensions over the uses to be allowed/encouraged in parks and open spaces

 

Developments in Community Ownership

The purpose of Community Development Trusts is to have organisations that are community owned and led which seek to:

·                     take on freehold ownership of building and other land assets

·                     provide services geared to the needs and aspirations of local people

·                     support businesses through providing work space from which surpluses can be used for the benefit of the community activities or to fund the further acquisition of more assets

In Scotland there is a law which enables local communities to buy land from their owners. The Development Trusts Association is lobbying for a similar right in England.

Local authorities vary in their attitudes to whether to sell buildings and sites or transfer them to Trusts or other community controlled organisations. There are many examples of local authorities of doing this e.g. leasing for 100 plus years at a peppercorn rent.

 

Lambeth’s Funding Crisis

The crisis we have is that Lambeth’s need to raise money is forcing it down the road of selling public assets to obtain a capital receipt. An £11m budget deficit has led to a freeze of non-essential Council spending. This crisis will continue whichever Party wins the local election in May.  

The problem with selling off public assets is that the land bank for future public and community service needs is reduced, and will only be met through buying from the private market. The cost of such purchases is increasingly prohibitive and difficult to fund.

 

Need for Demands

KOV area community and voluntary sector organisations need to develop a common policy of demands to put to Lambeth First, Lambeth Council and the other organisations that own assets. My personal view is that these might include the following:

·                     Local people should be at the heart of decision making.

·                     Local people should not be presented with fait accompli solutions to land and building development threats.

·                     Public land and building assets should be retained for public service and community uses.

·                     Where possible assets should be transferred to the freehold, or long-term leasehold control of organisations which are controlled by members of the local community.

·                     Given the need for funding resources to implement the North Lambeth Area section of the Community Strategy, all monies generated by the sale of Council assets in the KOV area should be put into a fund for supporting improvements and community and voluntary organisations.

·                     Given the need for funding resources to implement the North Lambeth Area section of the Community Strategy all monies raised under Section 106 generated by private sector developments in the area should be put into a fund which will provide funding support for local community controlled buildings.

·                     The Council should require payment of Section 106 money on signing the appropriate agreement.

·                     All proposals for the sale of public assets should be initially discussed through community participation activities, then at KOV Forum, and then at Area Committee, in order to ascertain the community perspective, ideas and options for the future of those public assets.

Such demands could form part of a Community Plan for the KOV area drawn up by the community and voluntary sector, an idea under discussion between the Settlement and RCDT.

Sean Creighton
Development & Management Worker
Riverside Community Development Trust
2 February 2006