Adopting a strategic approach
Debbie Lamb, DTA and Tony Rich, rich regeneration
What are development trusts?
• 400 in England and Wales
• £350m in assets• Some £10m+ asset
base, some small• Community-owned• Asset lock• Often located in
deprived areas• See: www.dta.gov.uk
The importance ofphysical assets• Benefits of the ‘reach’
of the third sector• For reach to be
consistent sustainability is key
• To be sustainable, organisations must have:
• Wealth and skills• Physical assets can
provide sustainable wealth
What we are not talking about…
• Short-term service delivery in vacant or underused buildings
• Capital investment without attention to business planning
• Untested assumptions about markets
• The transfer of liabilities not assets!
Benefits for community organisations
• A Place of our own—a focus for engagement
• Preserving key buildings
• Regeneration of an area
• A base for service delivery
• To stop paying rent• To generate income• To build balance sheet
strength
Examples
• Amble Development Trust
• Glendale Gateway Trust
• Linskill & North Tyneside Development Trust
• Craghead Development Trust
What do third sector organisations needfrom their LA?
• An open dialogue about assets (not liabilities)
• A named officer who can help 3rd sector organisations permeate the council and speed the process
• A chance to bid for service contracts
• On-going support from the LA
Need for a strategic approach
“Too often approaches to asset transfer have been locally responsive and tactical and insufficiently located in a strategic plan for community empowerment and public asset management” (Quirk Review pp 5)
What do we mean by strategic approach?
• Regular reviews of the asset transfer potential of all council (or preferably cross-public sector) stock
• A transparent corporate process for asset transfer which includes clear stages and timescales for each party
• Viewing assets as a means for achieving corporate objectives
• Adopting an agreed method of assessing benefits of community uses/organisations (linked to corporate priorities) which allows a comparison with market disposal
Example of decision- treediagram (Source– Sheffield CC)
Assessing proposals from community organisationsSource: Trafford MBC)
1. Open and affordable membership.2. Proof of charitable status or objectives.3. Facilities available to non-members4. Substantial part of income NOT derived from bar receipts.5. Active encouragement of disadvantaged groups.6. Meets at least 2 corporate objectives.7. Finance on open book basis.8. Over 51% of members resident in the Borough.9. Affiliation to a regional or national association to improve
quality of service delivery.10.Facilities compliant with DDA.11.Annual statement of how rent grant used in development
of group activities.
Asset maximisation
• Intervening at the point of disposal may be too late
• Need to ask – what role can the asset portfolio play in achieving corporate objectives?
• In terms of disposal, there will always be a need to balance market value with community benefit
• All assets have associated contracts (e.g. maintenance) which community organisations could compete for
Community asset transfer
• No of local jobs (and amount of likely local spend?)
• No of volunteers – cost of time
• Value of local purchasing• Value of additional
investment to go into building
• Service benefits e.g. savings to LA through recycling furniture
• Social impacts that can be quantified -e.g. reduction in cost of dealing with anti-social behaviour
Market disposal
• Market value of site – using optimum land use
• Value of any additional investment
• (If employment use) • No of local jobs • Amount of local purchasing
e.g. supply chains• Local spending by employees
Market disposal v. community asset transfer
Valuing community use Case study - Sofa project
• Furniture Recycling scheme• 60 yr below market value lease on derelict
building in low value area• Sofa attracted £1.3 million investment to rebuild • £416k pa staff earnings, £62k value volunteering• £280k pa savings to low income people • £45k savings in landfill costs• Credit Union developed and co-located• Property values increased in area• Developing two new branches in deprived areas• (Source: Bristol CC)
Potential tools for measuringimpact of Sofa project
• LM3 (Local Multiplier 3) – measures impact of spending on local economy
• VIVA (volunteer investment valuation audit) – quantifies value of volunteering
• ‘Landfill Reduction Indicator’ – reduction in landfill tax
• SROI (Social Return on Investment) – helps organisations identify impacts and then add monetary values to them
• All above can be used reactively, iteratively or proactively and can be monitored over time
Where next?
• Demonstration programme with 20 authorities- October 07-March 08
• Working with a group of authorities on model asset transfer procedures
• Working with a group of authorities to pilot tools for assessing benefits of community use
• Model tools and approaches to be made available more widely
Debbie Lamb
T: 01207 588534
Tony Rich
M: 07905 164 705
Contact details