Community Empowerment
In Scotland the community empowerment agenda acts as a driver for communities gaining more powers and having a say in the decisions important to them. Community empowerment runs through a range of policy areas relevant to community development, such as:
Participatory budgeting
The Local Governance Review
Community engagement
Community planning
Community councils
You can read more about community empowerment here.
View information about the 2023 Democracy Matters consultation here.
Community Empowerment Act
The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act was passed in 2015 and was aimed at empowering community bodies through the ownership of land and buildings, and by strengthening their voices in the decisions that matter to them. It has a range of features, but the main ones of interest to CDAS members are:
Participation requests: If a community group has an idea to make services better, they can make a participation request to the public body that runs the service.
Asset transfers: A community group can make an asset transfer request for any land or buildings which a relevant authority owns, or rents from someone else.
Community right to buy land: When a community group wants to buy a piece of land, they can apply to the Scottish Ministers to put it on a special list. Additionally, communities can apply to Scottish Ministers to let them buy the abandoned or neglected land, even if the owner doesn't want to sell it.