It was great to see in this piece in The Guardian recently that the Labour Party is considering adopting the recommendations of the Community Ownership Commission on strengthening the potential for community asset ownership, as part of their manifesto.

The current Assets of Community Value (ACV) rules in the Localism Act are useful as far as they go, in terms of demonstrating community interest in the long-term destiny of a particular building or site. But if an owner (whoever it is) is determined to ignore the wishes of local people and sell to the highest bidder, that's exactly what they can do (provided they have the patience to wait six months). That was an argument that was won by landowners when the rules were introduced.

The Commission's recommendations would transform that picture. They suggest the next Labour government should:

1.  Introduce a right to buy for assets of community value and vacant and derelict sites - massively increasing the impact of the ACV rules.
2. Invest in communities to support them to take on ownership of assets if they wish to do so - building local capacity and empowering people.
3. Create a place-based funding model by allocating the community ownership fund to local authorities to distribute in conjunction with their communities. Change the remit of the British Business Bank to include community ownership and increase support for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) - all of which would increase the funding possibilities. Revitalising the CDFI movement and giving them a new focus on community ownership would be really interesting.
4. Increase the resources available to local authorities to enable them to lead community ownership growth - which is a prerequisite. We are seeing in Birmingham and other local authorities the impact on local assets that Councils lacking funds can have.
5. Create a governance model that ensures communities are part of the decision-making on issues that affect their places - which means going beyond Councils to the very local, neighbourhood level.

Implementing those recommendations could see a step-change in community ownership. Let's hope the right people are paying attention.