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Community Asset Transfer in England: A summary of findings and conclusions

A summary of findings and conclusions

This research was undertaken towards a PhD at the University of Manchester. It aimed to establish whether Community Asset Transfer (CAT) could work as a tool for the empowerment of local communities by enabling them to provide facilities and services, on a neighbourhood level, that local authorities and other official bodies were unable to offer.

The study focused on West Yorkshire. The initial phase involved an analysis of the relevant policies and other publicly available documents from each of the five authorities in the county, and an attempt to compile as comprehensive a list as possible of the transferred assets in each. This task proved difficult, however, as Community Asset Transfer is not a statutory requirement and each local authority interprets the term slightly differently. Nor do they all publish (or have available) accurate lists of the transfers completed. An element of detective work was therefore required to conclude that 57 transfers had taken place in West Yorkshire as at the end of November 2017.

Read on to find out more by downloading the full electronic document on the following.

Find out more by downloading the full electronic document here.

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Community Asset Transfer in England 2010 to 2018 – enabling innovation for positive social change or perpetuating entrenched social inequalities?

Abstract

This research sets out to evaluate whether Community Asset Transfer (CAT), a mechanism for disposing of public property assets by selling, leasing or giving them to community organisations at less than market value, has any effect in reducing place-based inequalities. The use of CATs by local authorities has increased since the passing of the Localism Act in 2011 and they are portrayed as forming part of the localism agenda adopted by the British Coalition government at that time. Given the rhetoric of community empowerment surrounding this agenda, it is considered legitimate to evaluate asset transfers in these terms.

In this study Community Asset Transfers are set into the context of both theory and policy. Theoretical frameworks used to analyse the transfers include capability approaches and notions of social capital and social innovation. CATs are also considered in relation to other forms of community-led and asset-based development, as they can be seen as part of a historical continuum of social programmes and initiatives aimed at reducing poverty and regenerating deprived neighbourhoods. Research also covers relevant UK policies such as the imposition of austerity and its impact on the behaviour of local authorities, and the promotion of localism and the ‘Big Society’ idea favoured by Prime Minister David Cameron.

The research focuses on the county of West Yorkshire, a region with a reportedly high incidence of Community Asset Transfers. The policies and practices of the five local authorities making up the county are analysed and compared, using both secondary sources and primary data gathered through interviews with councillorsand council officers from those authorities. A further set of interviews, with members of community groups who have gonethrough the CAT process, builds on this information to create a picture of how CAT is experienced by these groups, and what value it brings to them.The distribution of CATs across the region is mapped against deprivation indices and analysis is made of any correlation found.

Having collated and coded the data from the local authorities and the community groups, the emergent themes are then mapped back onto frameworks and models previously discovered as part of the background study into the capability andsocial capitals approaches. Kleine’s (2010) Choice Framework is deemed to have the best fit with the findings of the study, but even it is a less than perfect match. A new framework, the Community Asset Transfer Framework (CATF), is therefore developed, better to reflect those findings. This new framework is explained at length.

Find out more by downloading the full electronic document here.

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Emergent strategy

It has often been said that a business without strategy is a business without direction.  But exactly how important is clear strategic focus for today’s organizations?  How have strategies had to adapt to today’s fast moving, dynamic and challenging business environment?

There is something of a myth that when strategic management was originated as a discipline, back in the 1960s, the world was static and unchanging; nowadays the world changes so fast that any kind of long term planning is redundant.

Igor Ansoff, one of the founding fathers of strategic management thought talked of “planning horizons”. He described it, literally, like seeing the horizon – from a boat, for example. Sometimes the weather is clear and you can see a long way ahead. Sometimes it’s a bit foggy or cloudy and you can’t see as far. There is no ‘right’ length of time to plan ahead – it depends how far you can see.

I’m a great believer in a clear strategic focus. If you don’t know what kind of organization you are and want to be, and don’t know what you want to achieve, how can you make sensible decisions on resource deployment, investment or direction?

A key adaptation today is the move away from command and control and to consensus and involvement. Clearly, you get a better result if people buy into a strategic goal. In that way, Henry Minzberg’s concept of emergent strategy is a powerful one – your intended strategy will be degraded and diluted in its implementation and you will get something you didn’t quite figure you were going to get. Minzberg called this ‘emergent strategy’. Therefore, the smart thing to do is to work on areas like culture, values and ideology, so when you get an emergent strategy result, at least it’s broadly in line with what you intended in the first place. 

Writing a strategy is dead easy. I can do it for a client within an hour of meeting them, and it would be pretty good. Having it implemented is the difficult bit. So, my advice for leaders – and it is a leadership issue – is to work on putting people, systems, cultures, structures and values in place. And then make sure they are aligned – joined up, and pointing in the same direction. That’s a key leadership role – managing alignment. And when intended strategy turns into emergent strategy, as it surely will…it should still be ok. It might even be a better outcome.