Community assets

Introduction

JRF's programme of research and development, begun in 2008, aims to assess how the development of community assets can contribute to a thriving civil society.

It looks at how the ownership or management of assets can help community organisations to become more resilient, and how these support the achievement of wider social goals, e.g. empowerment, regeneration, well-being and 'place making'.

The programme considers the opportunities, barriers, issues and outcomes associated with community control of assets.

Key issues

• Community assets are assets owned or managed by community organisations, including assets transferred from local authorities or other organisations or endowed to the community, and assets purchased independently or subsidised by other organisations.
• Community means local, resident-led and usually neighbourhood-based organisations that are neither public nor private and usually operate on a not-for-profit basis.
• Organisational models range from community land trusts to community development trusts and 'community anchors' -hubs of community activity.
• The assets owned by communities are wide ranging and often centre around land and buildings. These include houses, schools, community centres, village halls and renewable energy assets.
• JRF's programme assesses the impact of a range of approaches to asset-based community development across the UK to inform policy and practice.

Forthcoming work

JRF held a series of discussion forums in 2008 in different parts of the UK to inform this programme, and published a review of evidence on community ownership and management of assets. The review highlighted that much of the existing evidence on community assets has been produced from within the community sector, and concludes that further independent evidence is needed. JRF's work on community assets, which is being developed with others, aims to address some of these knowledge gaps to help inform future policy and practice development.

In 2009, the JRF is commissioning two projects:

• a historic look at community and mutual ownership models to see what we can learn from past experience;
• a research project to: develop a typology and map out differing models of current community controls of assets across the UK. It will also explore the costs, benefits, outcomes and critical success factors associated with differing approaches in practice.

JRF is also arranging a seminar series over 2009-10 to discuss policy development issues relating to this agenda across the UK.

Key links

Other sites which may be of interest include:

• The Development Trusts Association
• The Community Land Trust website