Community Right to Bid

The Community Right to Bid (‘the Right’), also known as Assets of Community Value, is one of the community rights derived from the Localism Act, 2012.

The aim of the Right lets communities nominate valuable local land and buildings for protection by requiring us to maintain a list of assets of community value. This includes both successful and unsuccessful nominations.

When listed assets come up for sale, the Act gives community groups the time to develop a bid and raise the money to bid to buy the asset when it comes on the open market.

The Right does not restrict who the owner of the asset can sell their property to, or at what price. It also does not confer a right on first refusal to community interest groups.

Asset of community value

An asset of community value:

  • is at least partly within the council's area
  • is a building or land which has recently been, or is presently being used to further the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community. It should also do so in the future. For example, in the next 5 years
  • does not fall within one of the exemptions specified in the assets of community value regulations

The Right does not apply to residential property or operational land as defined in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Part 2.

You can use our interactive map to find assets of community value in Stockport.

Nominating an asset

Only voluntary and community organisations with a local connection based in Stockport, or a neighbouring authority, can nominate an asset for inclusion on the list:

  • neighbourhood forums
  • parish councils
  • unincorporated bodies of 21 named members
  • a charity
  • company limited by guarantee
  • a society registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefits Societies Act 2014
  • community interest company

Successful nominations

The area committee which covers the location of the asset nominated will make a decision on whether the nomination is successful or not. If it's not successful information will be provided to explain the decision.

The nominating group will be informed within 8 weeks of our decision.

Reviewing decisions

If an asset owner is unhappy with our decision to list an asset they can request to lodge a review within 8 weeks of the written notification of listing.

Information will be provided directly to asset owners about how they can do this once they receive notification of the council’s listing decision.

Listed assets

We're required to maintain a list of successful and unsuccessful nominations under the Community Right to Bid, called the register of assets of community value.

We now publish our transparency data on data.gov.uk. This is in line with the requirements of the Transparency Code and support for open data.

Visit data.gov.uk to access the latest register of assets of community value.

Our approach

We've developed a local policy to implement the Community Right to Bid through the Community Right to Bid policy statement (PDF, 415KB).

If you’re interested in nominating a local asset complete our online nomination form.

Nominate an asset

You can also download a copy of the nomination form (PDF, 250KB) and email it to us at estateMGMT@stockport.gov.uk