Community Ownership of local Assets: conditions for sustainable success

Abstract

Paper given to British sociological Association conference,12/04/2018. Rates of asset transfer from local authority to community control have increased in recent years. This trend raises important questions around the impact of transfers on local communities, and how they manage these new responsibilities. This research project sought to answer two questions: how do local communities define what constitutes a community asset; and, once transferred to community ownership, what are the conditions and resources required for sustainable and successful community assets? Two districts in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, were selected as examples where local authority assets have been transferred into community control. Community asset maps were produced for each district using GIS mapping technology and qualitative case studies were developed based on interviews and questionnaires in each area. Our findings suggest that community stakeholders define community assets as buildings, open spaces or amenities. Such physical locations will provide a facilitative role in relation to 'social infrastructure' that can connect various parts of the community. Such assets, however, must, be open and available to the whole community in order to be regarded as legitimate community assets. Where assets transfers had taken place, there was an increase in community use and, often, the range of activities available. In order for asset transfers to have sustainable success, it was found that that a pool of capital -human, social, physical, and financial - was available to that community