Consultation on draft Scottish Community Empowerment Bill launched

The Scottish Government said the proposed Bill is aimed at "strengthening and nurturing" community participation and at encouraging "enterprising community development".

Proposals for the Bill include enabling communities to identify and ask for any public sector land or buildings that they feel could be made better use of. The decision whether to transfer that asset will be based on which proposed use would provide the greatest benefit to the community.

The consultation proposes to introduce opportunities for communities to be more involved in shaping and delivering better outcomes locally and to streamline and extend the existing community right to buy scheme to cover urban and rural communities.

It also proposes to update existing legislation to support the provision and management of allotments by local authorities, including imposing a duty to provide allotments linked to and triggered by actual demand and to protect permanent allotment sites from closure.

“Scotland’s people are its greatest asset and it is only with the confidence that comes with independence that people will be able to fully determine their own futures," said Scottish Local Government and Planning Minister Derek Mackay in a statement.

“The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill is about people and communities taking their own decisions about their future. This will build on the support of the Scottish Government, set out by the First Minister in the Lerwick Declaration, for subsidiarity and local decision making." Mackay added.

"The Scottish Government's proposal to strengthen community participation in local assets is well intentioned, however, it is important that any legislation complements existing initiatives and policies intended to deliver growth and improvement of communities," said Paul Connolly, property expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. 

"The legislation has to strike a proper balance between the interests of the public and private sector to ensure that in empowering communities to become more actively involved in local assets the legislation does not serve to add greater complexity or barrier to private sector proposals for future investment in the community," Connolly said. 

"Proposals such as the extension of community right to buy into urban areas and the introduction of compulsory rights of purchase of neglected assets have to be carefully considered to ensure they deliver the community improvement sought by the legislation and do not simply result in the transfer of liability to the community," he added.

The consultation will be open for comments until 24 January 2014.