Community right to buy: review
Community body structures
There are several requirements that community groups must meet, before being eligible (‘compliant’) to submit an application under any of the community rights to buy, including:
- They must define a geographic community
- They must have no fewer than 10 members
- Three quarters (75%) of the members must be resident in the community and eligible to vote in a local election in the area. These are known as Ordinary Members
- Those Ordinary Members must be in control of the company
These requirements were introduced to ensure that the community body is controlled by those who live in the area, and not those from elsewhere who might seek to influence what is done with the assets. That policy objective has not changed, but some community groups have struggled to meet the 75% Ordinary Member threshold. Scottish Government is therefore proposing that the threshold be lowered to anything over 50%.
The rights require that a minimum of 10% of the ordinary members of a community group are in attendance at general meetings of community groups, to ensure a representative local voice in decision making. Scottish Government’s policy objective remains unchanged, but we are considering whether 10% is sufficient to ensure this objective