Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015: update and findings report

Background

Introduction

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament in June 2014 as part of a wider programme of public service reform in Scotland, ignited by the 2011 Christie Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services Report. This report made clear that public sector organisations must work more effectively together and in partnership with communities, with a focus on achieving outcomes. There was a clear recognition in the report and in the Scottish Government’s response in the Renewing Scotland’s Public Services: Priorities for Reform Report of the need to work with people and communities, and in the importance of place. A timeline is provided in Figure One outlining the emerging community empowerment landscape, leading to the development of the bill and subsequent community empowerment legislation and beyond.

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 (the Act) provides a legal framework that promotes and encourages community empowerment and participation by creating new rights for community bodies and placing new duties on public authorities. The Act has 12 parts, 11 of which include a mix of legislative drivers at various stages of implementation and delivery with legal implications for Scottish Ministers, Local Authorities, CPPs, the wider public sector and owners of private land. Part 12 makes general provisions in relation to the Act and guidance developed for each part of the Act has been published in accordance with Part 12.

The Act put into statute the national outcomes approach for Scotland; introduced a clear statutory purpose for community planning focused on improving outcomes; created a right for communities to make a request to public authorities to participate in an outcome improvement process; put asset transfer on a statutory footing where communities can purchase, lease or manage publicly owned assets; extended the right to buy land to the whole of Scotland and to purchase neglected, abandoned or detrimental land where the owner is not willing to sell; placed a duty on Local Authorities to be more transparent on common good property and allotments and provided a new power on non-domestic rates relief schemes. The Act also amended section 7C of the Forestry Act 1967 and provided a power for Scottish Ministers to make provisions about supporters’ involvement in and ownership of Football Clubs and Participation in Public Decision Making should a statutory route be required in the future. A summary of the Act is provided in Annex A.

In September 2021 the Scottish Government committed to reviewing the Act in the Fairer Greener Scotland Programme for Government 2021-22 as set out in the following commitment, with a focus on community ownership and community participation:

“We will review the Community Empowerment Act, to consider how local communities can have more of a say over how local public assets are used – whether that is taking on the ownership or management of land or buildings, delivery of services to members of their community, or more say in how services are delivered, assets are used and resources are allocated.”

This commitment was reaffirmed in the Equality, Opportunity, Community Programme for Government 2023-24, with a particular focus on Part 2: Community Planning as follows:

“Review the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 to ensure it is fit for purpose, explore how communities can be further empowered, and improve community planning (covered by Part 2 of the Act) to support the shared ambitions within the Verity House Agreement.”

The review was launched by then Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth on 21 July 2022.

Figure 1: Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 – Timeline

2003: Community Planning introduced via the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003

2005: National Standards for Community Engagement jointly launched by the Scottish Government and COSLA

2006: Scottish Community Empowerment Action Plan: Celebrating Success: Inspiring Change published jointly by the Scottish Government and COSLA

2011: Christie Commission’s report on the Future Delivery of Public Services published followed by the Scottish Government’s response Renewing Scotland’s Public Service: Priorities for Reform

2012: The Statement of Ambition for Community Planning issued by the Scottish Government and COSLA

2014: Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill introduced in the Scottish Parliament

2015: The Bill passed on 17 June 2015 and received Royal Assent on 24 July 2015 Part 8 Common Good (in part) and Part 11 Non Domestic Rates came into force

2016: Part 1 National outcomes, Part 2 Community Planning and Part 4 Community Right to Buy Land came into force. National Standards for Community Engagement updated and relaunched

2017: Part 3 Participation Requests and Part 5 Asset Transfer came into force. Democracy Matters Phase 1 launched

2018: Part 9 Allotments came into force. Remainder of Part 8 Common Good came into force

2019: Democracy Matters Phase 1 Findings published Principles for Community Empowerment published by Audit Scotland

2022: Review of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 launched

2023: Democracy Matters Phase 2 launched

2024: Democracy Matters Phase 2 Findings published. Scottish Government and COSLA joint statement on the Local Governance Review committing to taking forward the Democracy Matters findings and the development of Single Authority Models

2025: Review of Part 3 Participation Requests Findings Report, the Review of Part 5 Asset Transfer Findings Report and the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 Update and Findings Report published

Strategic Context

This review is part of the wider public service reform 10-year programme in Scotland. This programme of work focuses on both reforming public services to be more efficient and effective, and on shaping services around what matters to people and communities to provide holistic support that prioritises prevention.

To deliver these relational, preventative place-based services, communities need to be strengthened and empowered. This means communities having greater control over how services are delivered and that those accessing services, do so on the basis of being able to contribute to resolving the challenges they face, supported by public services.

The review of the Act is closely aligned to the Scottish Government and COSLA’s Local Governance Review which is considering how powers, responsibilities and resources should be shared across national and local spheres of government, and with communities. The Serving Scotland Programme for Government 2024-25 confirmed that the Local Governance Review will conclude in this parliament as a key pillar of the public service reform programme, creating the opportunity to accelerate Scotland’s community empowerment journey by considering the future of local democracy in Scotland.

The review’s community empowerment engagement process, Democracy Matters, asked communities from across Scotland to come together to consider how decision making should happen in their town, village or neighbourhood. The process received over 160 responses, 83 of which were the product of community run conversations. The Democracy Matters Phase 2: Analysis of Responses Findings Report was published in September 2024 and reflects a clear desire to have a greater control over decision making at a more local level and a diversity of views on how to achieve it. The Scottish Government and COSLA’s Local Governance Review: Joint Statement published alongside the findings report committed to a robust policy development process before an implementation phase in the next parliament. This work is ambitious in outlook and will deliver new inclusive decision making arrangements which better enable everyone, regardless of their background, to participate in civic life, supporting the next phase of Scotland’s community empowerment journey.

The Local Governance Review also invited proposals for changes to how powers are shared at Local Authority and CPP level or regionally. Three Local Authority areas proposed a move towards a single authority type model of local governance in each of their distinct geographies. The initial focus is on arrangements which bring local government and local health functions more closely under local democratic control. These arrangements could encompass a broader suite of functions over time and will have direct implications for existing local partnership working, including CPPs. All local partners will have an important role in ensuring new local governance models maximise their potential to deepen service integration and incentivise crucial cross-sector investment in preventive services over the short, medium and longer-term.

The work over the remainder of the current parliament to develop detailed place-specific propositions in each of the three participating authority areas will generate valuable learning for CPPs and wider interests across Scotland. This learning will include how the public, private and third sectors can adapt to establish a dynamic new relationship with communities, in line with the changes which will be delivered through the Democracy Matters process.

Community Empowerment Context

In addition to the Local Governance Review, wider programmes and approaches across Government are supporting the empowerment of communities that add to the legislative context of the Act. The following provides a snapshot of some of this work and there are many more programmes being taken forward by the Scottish Government in collaboration with the public sector, third sector and communities.

Significant investment has been made by the Scottish Government’s Empowering Communities Programme which supports community-led regeneration, enabling communities to tackle poverty and inequality on their own terms. The programme delivers investment through a mix of community funding streams and strategic partnerships together enabling communities to create local plans; develop local assets; create jobs; deliver services and projects in response to local needs and encouraging and supporting community engagement.

As well as the Empowering Communities Programme, the Scottish Land Fund supports both rural and urban communities to become more resilient and sustainable through the ownership and management of assets. Funded by the Scottish Government and delivered in partnership by The National Lottery Community Fund and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, it offers grants of up to £1 million to help communities take ownership of land and buildings, as well as practical support to develop their aspirations into viable projects. Between May 2015 to March 2024 the Scottish Land Fund has awarded over £50 million to more than 300 community organisations and more information is available at Scottish Land Fund awards.

Funding is contributing to community ownership of land, buildings and other assets and in the latest annual Community Ownership in Scotland Report published in November 2024, summary statistics for 2023 found that 840 assets are owned by 533 groups covering an area of 208,597 hectares (approximately the size of Stirling Local Authority area, 218,616 hectares). Community ownership is delivering benefits to communities across Scotland and many have mobilised their assets and capacity to meet a wide range of needs, particularly those of the most vulnerable.

To further support community empowerment the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 14 March 2024. The Bill proposes to ensure that the benefits of land ownership, and decisions about how land is managed and used, are more widely shared. Through the introduction of advance notice of certain sales from large landholdings, the Bill aims to empower communities with more opportunities to own land. It will also introduce a new type of land management tenancy to improve opportunities for small landholders and tenant farmers.

In further support for rural local decision-making and community empowerment, the Scottish Government has provided over £900,000 funding towards the Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament since the first event in 2014. Scotland is the only part of the UK that has a Rural Parliament, which underlines the commitment to enabling rural communities to identify the local and national issues they want to address, and the opportunities they want to explore.

Another important development was the introduction of the Islands (Scotland) Act in 2018 which is only one of a handful of place-based pieces of legislation to focus specifically on islands in the world. The measures it contains, like the Island Communities Impact Assessment, are designed to meaningfully improve outcomes for island communities and ensure national policies and investments are delivered in a way that empowers island communities and takes their often unique challenges into account. The Islands Act requires Scottish Ministers to review the Plan within five years of its publication. Following a public consultation carried out in 2023, Ministers have announced that a new National Islands Plan will be published in 2025.

In further recognition of the importance of supporting the development of thriving rural communities, the Scottish Government has invested over £24.5 million of the Community-Led Local Development Programme in rural and island communities since 2021, delivering over 1000 grassroots community-led projects. A large scale review of the programme has been commissioned which will examine its strategic fit in relation to wider public and third sector interventions, and consider options for its future role, focus and delivery.

The Scottish Government has adopted the internationally recognised Community Wealth Building approach to economic development as a key practical means by which Scotland could achieve a wellbeing economy. Community Wealth Building acts as a framework for activity across five interlinked pillars which are spending, workforce, land and property, inclusive ownership and finance. There has been significant progress in implementing Community Wealth Building in Scotland over the past few years led by Local Authorities and communities, often in partnership with wider CPPs. A Community Wealth Building Bill will be introduced to ensure consistent implementation of the Community Wealth Building model of economic development across Scotland and address economic and wealth inequality by supporting the retention of more wealth in local and regional economies and empowering communities.

The Place and Wellbeing Programme sits within the wider Care and Wellbeing Portfolio, which is a major reform programme designed to improve population health, address health inequalities and improve sustainability of the health and social care system. The Communities workstream within the programme aims to empower the community and voluntary sector to act locally to complement the actions of the public sector in tackling health inequalities. A key focus of the workstream is looking at how to increase the influence local community organisations have over decisions that impact on health and wellbeing within their communities. A process of engagement has recently been undertaken with Third Sector Interfaces, community organisations, public sector partners and relevant Scottish Government policy leads exploring how best to progress this objective.

Finally, a Participatory Budgeting approach is supported and promoted by the Scottish Government as a meaningful way to directly involve communities in how money is spent in their local area, working in partnership with the public sector and building on the wider development of participatory democracy in Scotland.