Committee
Local Government and Communities Committee 09 September 2020
09 Sep 2020 · S5 · Local Government and Communities Committee
Item of business
Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 (Parts 3 and 5) (Post-legislative Scrutiny)
To follow on from Sarah Boyack’s line of questioning, the organisations or community groups that apply for asset transfer are obviously sometimes refused. What is the main reason for refusing an asset transfer and how do communities progress their projects after a refusal?
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Item 3 is an evidence session on the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. Last year, the committee carried out a major digital listening exercise, in...
Professor Artur Steiner (Glasgow Caledonian University)
I think that Clementine Hill-O’Connor is the best person to answer that question. She conducted data collection and can give examples of specific interventions.
Clementine Hill-O’Connor (University of Strathclyde)
One of the things to flag about specific examples of the participation requests is that it was agreed that interviews and case studies would all be anonymous...
The Convener
SNP
Do you sense that participation requests have led to better partnerships between communities and public service bodies?
Professor Steiner
Participation requests aim to create collaboration between public service authorities and community groups. In the past, collaboration was obviously possible...
The Convener
SNP
Following on from that, I note that you state: “There is some evidence that participation requests are more likely to be successfully used by higher capaci...
Professor Steiner
It would be misleading to say that the act widens inequalities. That statement came from a limited number of interviews and those observations were made by s...
The Convener
SNP
I notice that there have been only 46 participation requests over the first two years. Is that because people need to have a certain amount of expertise in t...
Professor Steiner
That is an interesting point to highlight. Is 46 a high number, or a low number? We have to remember that the legislation is new, and it takes time for commu...
Sarah Boyack (Lothian) (Lab)
Lab
Welcome to the witnesses. The evidence that you have presented to us has been very useful. I want to follow up about experiences of the sections of the act ...
Professor Steiner
I will start the answer, and then I will pass the question to Clementine Hill-O’Connor and Carolyn McMillan, so that they can add to what I say. On the type...
Sarah Boyack
Lab
It was about the outcomes from the new asset transfer powers that were granted under the act. Historically, there were opportunities in rural communities but...
Professor Steiner
What we can see from our study and from evidence that we have collected is that a lot of asset transfers under the act take place in urban locations. Communi...
Clementine Hill-O’Connor
On the question of the types of communities, there is clearly an interest in the extent to which the act can have an impact on inequalities, and that was one...
Carolyn McMillan (Glasgow Caledonian University)
I wanted to add to what Artur Steiner said about the mapping on to the SIMD deciles. It is related to what we have already been saying about participation re...
Sarah Boyack
Lab
That is really useful. Can I explore that bit about how you level the playing field? Given the evidence about skill sets in communities, what are your top re...
Professor Steiner
We highlighted in our work for the committee that capacity building is an important component of the act and that it should somehow be enhanced and implement...
Carolyn McMillan
We started with a mapping exercise to identify the barriers to participation of marginalised groups or disadvantaged communities before making our recommenda...
Annie Wells (Glasgow) (Con)
Con
To follow on from Sarah Boyack’s line of questioning, the organisations or community groups that apply for asset transfer are obviously sometimes refused. Wh...
Professor Steiner
Every application has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. We have to see added value for transferring assets—whether it is a building or land, there has ...
Clementine Hill-O’Connor
The rate of refusal is relatively low. We did not receive as much data as we would have liked, but we can say that there were three refusals in 2017-18 and s...
Annie Wells
Con
Some community transfer bodies experience difficulties with relevant authorities, describing them as “hostile” or “obstructive”. What can be done to change t...
Professor Steiner
That relates to a change in culture or approach to enabling local democracy. Evidence from our research indicates that some community groups have experience...
Annie Wells
Con
Thank you.
Keith Brown (Clackmannanshire and Dunblane) (SNP)
SNP
Thank you for the reports. It seems that one theme that runs through them is the perhaps less than enthusiastic embrace of this legislation by local and publ...
Professor Steiner
I would like to direct that question to Carolyn McMillan.
Carolyn McMillan
That could be the case. A lot of the interviewees talked about working under budget constraints and what that meant for their ability to take the time to sit...
Keith Brown
SNP
There seems to be an in-built prejudice that this will always involve local authorities, but it must be true of the other authorities that can receive reques...
Professor Steiner
Community groups can request any kind of asset transfer at any time if they think that the asset can be run by a community group better than it is currently ...
Keith Brown
SNP
Thank you for that. I appreciate that it is quite early to say, but my question was about the extent to which the evidence that you have seen shows that the ...