Community buy-backs – the English approach

More than a decade ago the British parliament passed a law that enabled communities in England to buy back underused public assets. The Localism Act 2011 included a provision that allowed a community to apply to take over the ownership, or management, of a community asset which, in the community’s view, was either under-utilised or neglected by the council.

At the time the legislation was passed, many councils were faced with growing budget deficits and willingly chose to transfer local neighbourhood assets, such as recreation centres, libraries, and other forms of social infrastructure, to community control. In fact, by 2019, it was estimated that there were 6,325 community assets (defined as land and buildings with long-term ownership rights and control by local people) that had been transferred to community control. It has been estimated that 56p of every 1 pound spent by community-owned assets stays local.

While no such provision exists in New Zealand, all councils have a level of discretion over the future of their assets and a local policy could be developed that enables communities to bid for under-utilised community assets.