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

E: d.lamb@dta.org.uk

T: 01207 588534

Tony Rich

E: tony@richregeneration.com

M: 07905 164 705

Contact details