The new Community Right to Buy will be a lasting legacy of this Labour government
Angela Rayner MP, Deputy Prime Minister, speaking at Co-operative Party Change event in Manchester (Credit: Alan Keith Beastall / Alamy Stock Photo)
3 min read
Parks, pubs, sports clubs, libraries, allotments, community centres, local shops, youth clubs – these are the building blocks of a community.
They’re the things that make up our local areas and that define the places we’re from. But for so many communities, they’re also the things that have slowly disappeared: 14 years of brutal government cuts have stripped communities of vital assets, meaning an entire generation has grown up without access to those fundamental building blocks.
Assets like these matter not only for the services they provide, but also because they’re spaces for communities and the activities that they care about. Libraries aren’t only places to find books, they’re also spaces for voluntary financial advice to be provided for those who need it. Youth clubs don't just cater for young people, they’re also spaces that can develop digital skills and climate workshops. Pubs aren’t just for pints, they’re also spaces for local families to use for kids’ birthday parties and anniversaries. When spaces like these disappear, communities suffer. And that has been the story of the last decade and a half.
Community ownership builds assets that can’t just be erased or dismantled
Today’s devolution white paper turns the page and makes important progress in rebuilding community from the ground up. It introduces a new Community Right to Buy, giving communities the first right of refusal when valued community assets are available, before they go to the market. In practice, this means that it is local community groups, rather than multimillion pound companies, that get the first shot at owning and operating the assets that matter most to them.
This step will drastically improve the weaknesses of the existing system, which currently blocks community groups from gaining access to local assets, and make community ownership accessible to all communities, rather than just those with the time or resources to wade through endless bureaucratic barriers.
The Co-operative Party and movement has long campaigned for this new right, because we believe community ownership is a powerful tool for rebuilding our communities after a decade of neglect. The Community Right to Buy puts local people in the driving seat, gives them the opportunity to not only own but operate the assets that make up a community, proves skills and training, allows local assets to be designed by and for a community in line with its specific needs.
Community ownership isn’t a new idea. In fact, it in some ways has its roots in the UK’s working men’s clubs movement, where working-class men and women owned and operated vibrant clubs that were the beating hearts of their communities. The fight to strengthen community ownership builds on that proud tradition and revive it for today’s communities.
Giving communities meaningful power has one other important aspect – it is genuinely long-lasting. For too long, communities have been victims of a vicious cycle, where one government invests in community projects and assets, but the next cuts the investment and undoes the progress. Even the most successful community initiatives of the last few decades have been taken away just as quickly as they were set up. Community ownership is an important step in ending that cycle.
This will put power permanently into the hands of the community, allowing them to decide what happens to the assets around them. Once a community centre, a library or a sports club is owned by the community, it doesn’t rely on funding or decision-making from Westminster – it can operate independently.
Community ownership builds assets that can’t just be erased or dismantled. By putting that power into communities’ hands, Labour is building something that can’t be taken away.
Joe Fortune is general secretary of the Co-operative Party
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