Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill part of regeneration strategy for Scotland

Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Investment, Alex Neil, yesterday (12th December) released a regeneration strategy for Scotland: Achieving a Sustainable Future – Regeneration Strategy,

This is a £175m approach to confronting problems in Scotland’s most deprived areas. It includes details of a £50m fund to be established to provide loans for regeneration projects in 13 eligible areas.

Within the strategy, is a very interesting proposal – a planned Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill.

The Scottish government intends to look at how it can be made easier for communities to take over ownership of unused and underused publicly owned assets, turning empty and derelict properties into community assets.

This may be of some interest, for example, to those working on making Kilmory Home Farm in Lochgilphead a valuable community resource.

This measure has much to commend it.

Unused, underused or derelict council assets are, at base, public assets paid for by the taxpayer. This plan to repatriate them to empower and invigorate communities has an attra ctove smack of Robon Hood about it and is entirely feasible. The devil will be in the nature and force of the resistance from the local authorities.

Some details of the overall Regeneration Strategy

• ‘The Scottish Government will provide £7.9m per annum from 2012  to  2015 to support the People and Communities Fund, specifically to promote and support community-led regeneration. The details of this fund will be announced in 2012. However, activity will include: building on the Wider Role fund, funding to support and strengthen local community anchor organisations across  Scotland, including RSLs and Development Trusts. These will be organisations that deliver local regeneration activity and promote change in our most deprived urban areas, our fragile town centres and ex-coalfield communities.
• Support for community asset ownership through the Community Ownership Support Service. This service, provided through the Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS), provides  help and advice to community organisations interested in asset ownership.
• Investment in a new community capacity building programme. This will focus on  areas where there are currently few local organisations, weak networks amongst local people and where local people’s skills and confidence need to be nurtured. It will have a focus on helping people to decide how budgets in their areas are spent.
• Continuing to provide dedicated support to the Coalfields  Regeneration Trust to help it develop as a self sufficient social enterprise. This will enable it to build on its strong profile in ex­-coalfield communities  and  to  develop  its capacity building role further.
• Support for the Achieving Change Programme.