Consultation event: community right to buy and community right to challenge

The Department for Communities and Local Government is pleased to invite you to a consultation event on the Community Right to Buy and Community Right to Challenge in March and April.

These two rights are included in the Localism Bill, introduced to parliament on 13 December 2010. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the detail of the rights will be established in regulations and guidance.

Commmunity Right to Buy

Under the Community Right to Buy important local amenities and buildings - such as old town halls, community halls or the last village shop or pub can be nominated for listing by the local authority as assets of community value. If listed assets come up for sale, communities will have extra time to prepare a bid to take them over, making it easier to keep much-loved assets in public use and part of local life.

Community Right to Challenge

Under the Community Right to Challenge voluntary and community groups, parish councils and local authority staff will be able to challenge to take over the running of local public services. If an Expression of Interest is accepted, the local authority will need to carry out a procurement exercise for that service.

Consultations were published on 4 February 2011 for both rights, and are due to close at 5pm on 3 May 2011. We want to ensure both rights are as effective as possible, so in addition to inviting responses to the consultation documents we will be speaking to a wide range of interested parties, including local government and voluntary and community organisations.

Each event will have a morning session on the Community Right to Buy and an afternoon session on the Community Right to Challenge. If you are interested in attending one or both sessions, please email crtchallenge@communities.gsi.gov.uk or crtbuy@communities.gsi.gov.uk
 

Who should attend

This event is primarily aimed at local government (including parish councils), voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations, private businesses, landowners and those involved in conveyancing law and land registry. We also welcome individual service users.
 

Speakers

Speakers will include staff from the Department for Communities and Local Government working on the Community Right to Buy and Community Right to Challenge.
 

Further information

Visit the Department for Communities and Local Government website 

 
Contact: Angela Harrowing
Tel: 0303 444 1349
Email: angela.harrowing@communities.gsi.gov.uk