Speaking in Darlington, County Durham this week, Labour shadow levelling-up secretary Lisa Nandy unveiled a scheme which will give community groups first refusal on assets of community value [ACVs] which go up for sale in their area.
Under current rules, buildings or pieces of land which are or have been used to “further social wellbeing or social interests of the local community and could so in the future” can be nominated to be classified as an ACV by community groups or councils.
Should ACVs go up for sale, a local group is given a timeframe of six months to gauge whether they will be able to bid for it, during which time the owner is unable to sell it.
However, after the six-month grace period lapses, owners are free to sell assets of community value to anyone.
After a report compiled by the Communities Committee in Parliament suggested that the six-month grace period was too short and sidelined groups in more disadvantaged communities from making bids, Labour has mobilised to change the law if it is elected to government.
The party has proposed extending the timeframe to 12 months and giving local community groups new powers to force the sale of land or buildings that are left in states of disrepair, including high street units left derelict that are allowed to become run down.
Nandy said that the policy change would be the “first step” in Labour’s vision to hand “greater financial autonomy” to “our towns, villages, and cities”.
Labour has assigned former EY chief economist Mark Gregory to explore how community groups could “best leverage private investment” in order to purchase ACVs in future.
Nandy also outlined Labour’s plans to alleviate the negative impacts of second homes being left empty for long spells of the year in coastal and rural areas.
The party’s solution is a licensing system which would make it easier to identify genuine second homes that are used as holiday lets, rather than being left “empty while pretending to rent them out to holidaymakers”.
During her address, Nandy also attacked the Conservative government’s record on levelling-up, saying that their commitment to tackling regional equalities across the country was “dead”.
Highlighting that several of the current hopefuls in the ongoing Tory leadership contest were promising tax cuts and deregulation, Nandy said that this would bring the “final nail in the coffin” for the levelling-up agenda.
She said: “In short, the Tories' commitment to levelling up is dead. But levelling up is not dead. Not for the millions who voted for change - and who need and deserve to see it delivered."
The levelling-up agenda was a cornerstone of the Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto, and in his resignation speech, outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson called on the next PM to “keep levelling-up, keep unleashing the potential of every part of the UK.”
Johnson emphasised the need for regional inequalities to be addressed, pointing out that while “genius and talent and enthusiasm” were in abundance across the UK, opportunity was not evenly distributed.
Greg Clark, the newly appointed levelling-up secretary, dismissed Nandy’s claims, pointing out that the latest round of the government’s £4.8 billion levelling-up fund opened last week.
Clark added that the government had already launched an initiative known as the Community Ownership Fund, which helped local groups “take control of clubs, venues and other prized assets” of value to communities.
