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

Updates

The previous two sections provided a summary of the extensive review of Part 3 Participation Requests and Part 5 Asset Transfer and the in-depth assessment of Part 2 Community Planning. This section provides an update on the other eight parts of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. This includes the three parts that have been reviewed in parallel to parts 3 and 5 and the five parts that have not been reviewed. Updates are presented in chronological order.

Part 1: National Outcomes

In 2007, the Scottish Government introduced a new outcomes-based National Performance Framework (NPF) and in 2008, launched Scotland Performs, a website designed to present information on how Scotland is performing against the range of indicators outlined in the NPF.

Part One National Outcomes came into force on 15 April 2016 and puts a duty on Scottish Ministers to determine the national outcomes for Scotland which sets out a vision for collective wellbeing. The national indicators provide an indication of Scotland’s progress in achieving the national outcomes.

The Act requires Ministers to review the national outcomes within five years of their publication. Work on the latest review began in May 2022 and concluded in January 2025. Following the statutory public consultation and further policy work, 13 draft National Outcomes were laid in front of Parliament.

The NPF is based on the premise that ‘what we measure matters’, and to do this a series of National Indicators were selected in 2018, to provide an indication of progress to support the use of the NPF in achieving the national outcomes. Ministers have a statutory duty to regularly report on progress towards the outcomes, which is done through the National Indicator Set. To ensure the indicator set remains fit for purpose and focused on measuring progress towards the national outcomes, national indicators will be revised to reflect any changes in the National Outcomes.

Following the review, the Act requires Ministers to consult the Scottish Parliament on the proposed changes during the consultation period, for a minimum of 40 days when the Parliament is not in recess. In consulting the Scottish Parliament, they must also lay before the Parliament a document describing the consultation, any representations received, and how those representations have been taken account of in preparing the proposed revisions.

The recent Consultation with Parliament in connection with the review of the national outcomes was laid before the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish Ministers on 1 May 2024, in accordance with section 2(6) of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. The Public and Finance Administration Committee, published their response in the Report on the National Performance: Review of National Outcomes on 15 November 2024 and the Scottish Government provided their response to this on 14 January 2025. In this response and the associated Parliamentary debate on the inquiry, the Deputy First Minister has committed to

“look again at every aspect of the National Performance Framework to support the development and implementation of a stronger and more strategic and impactful framework for Scotland.”

Looking again at every aspect of the framework means, in practice, no immediate changes will be made to the NPF, including the National Outcomes and National Indicators, which will not be updated until this work has concluded. It also means that the original proposals made following the Scottish Government’s statutory review that were laid before the Scottish Parliament in May 2024 may be revised.

In both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 Programmes for Government, the Scottish Government committed to exploring a Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (WSD) Bill to support the greater implementation of the National Performance Framework. The results of the Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Bill: consultation analysis were published on 9 July 2024. Ministers have now decided not to progress with the Government’s WSD Bill due to the need to prioritise limited resources in constrained times. The Government is nevertheless supportive of the general aims and open to considering alternative methods for delivery beyond primary legislation to ensure future generations are better considered in decision-making.

Ministers and officials also continue to engage with Ms Boyack MSP (Labour) who, having secured the necessary cross party support in Parliament, plans to introduce a WSD Members’ Bill, including the creation of a Future Generations Commissioner. The Government notes the recent recommendations from the Finance and Public Accounts Committee on Scotland’s Commissioner landscape, including for a moratorium on the creation of new commissioners until the operational framework is reviewed to make it fit for purpose.

Part 4: Community Right to Buy Land

Part 4 - Community Rights to Buy Land came into force on 15 April 2016. The Act extended the community rights to buy (CRTB) to all of Scotland and introduced a new provision for community bodies to purchase neglected, abandoned or detrimental land where the owner is not willing to sell. This was inserted as Part 3A of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

There have not been any successful Part 3A applications to date (the new right to buy that was brought in by this Act). The Act also widened the rights to buy to urban communities. Since April 2016, there have been 44 applications for Community Right to Buy that have been approved by Scottish Ministers.

A review of all of the community rights to buy has been announced and commenced in the summer of 2024, and conclusions will be announced in December 2025. It is proposed that all the Rights to Buy from various pieces of legislation are to be reviewed at the same time to ensure as much consistency as possible between each of those rights. This review will include feedback from all stakeholders such as community groups, support organisations, Local Authorities, property lawyers and landowners.

The review is being conducted in four phases:

• Phase 1 – Initial collection of evidence and views to be completed Autumn 2024
• Phase 2 – Assessment and development of proposals to be completed Spring 2025
• Phase 3 – Formal consultation to be completed Autumn 2025
• Phase 4 – Development of proposals to be completed end 2025

More detail on each of the phases can be found on the Scottish Government Land Reform website.

Part 6: Delegation of Forestry Commission’s Functions

Part 6 Delegation of Forestry Commission’s Functions came into force on 23 January 2017, to amend the definition of communities bodies in the Forestry Act 1967 in Scotland. The 1967 Act has been superseded by the Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Act 2018 which confers on the Scottish Ministers forestry and land management functions in Scotland. Therefore Part 6 of the 2015 Act is no longer relevant, as the 1967 Act was repealed by the 2018 Act. The 2015 Act sets out the definition of community bodies as it applies to the Scottish Ministers land, including the national forests and land, so a review of Part 6 was not required.

Forestry and Land Scotland published its Communities Strategy for Scotland’s National Forests and Land in October 2023, setting out three key principles as a framework for its priorities for working with communities on the national forests and land. The strategy also provides examples of existing community initiatives, projects and asset transfer of the national forests and land, and is an open invitation for groups to come forward with ideas on how Scotland’s national forests and land can benefit the wider communities they are part of.

Community asset transfers of national forests and land have been integral to the creation of businesses, tourism and recreation opportunities and to establishing affordable housing, woodland crofts and community hydro renewable energy schemes. The 27 transfers completed to date include:

• small areas of land and buildings within the national forests such as the site for the Scottish Crannog Centre’s new museum and visitor centre by Loch Tay, the Argyll Beaver Centre in Knapdale run by the Heart of Argyll Wildlife Organisation and Slattadale by Loch Maree to provide an outdoor education facility for Gairloch High School and local primary schools
• new community woodlands ranging from six to 200 hectares such as the Carron Valley Community Woodland, Friends of Glenan Wood, Portavadie, Carsphairn Community Woodland and Ardura Community Forest on Mull and most recently Longrigg Wood, Strontian for community objectives including biodiversity, income from sustainable timber and wood fuel production, outdoor education and to provide a space for the community to come together
• land for communities of interest such as the Arran High School Mountain Bike Club new pump track and skills trails in Dyemill Forest and Lochgoil Watersports Club acquiring their boatyard, originally established 40 years ago under a lease the then Forestry Commission
• leases for two new hydro schemes, established by Raasay Development Trust at Inverarish and Lochaber Environment Group at Glenachulish, adding to the five existing community hydro schemes on the national forests and lands, generating income to deliver community projects and action plans
• the creation of woodlands crofts and affordable housing by Glengarry Community Woodlands, in partnership with the Communities Housing Trust, well as sites for affordable housing such as Rural Stirling Housing Association’s planned development at Balmaha

Communities are making use of the national forests and land to create new facilities such as Laggan Forest Trust’s new mountain bike trail (New Blue Trail for Laggan Wolftrax bridges a trail gap), the Mull Community Native Tree Nursery, allotments at Lesmahagow and Fort William, and the Wyvis Natural Play Park by Garve. FLS also works with active community groups who want to be more involved in managing the national forests and land such as the Kilsture Forest Community Group, the Carradale Forest Group with East Kintyre Community Council, and through wider partnerships such as the Strathard Partnership.

Part 7: Football Clubs

Part 7 Football Clubs has not been implemented but provides a power for Scottish Ministers to make regulations which facilitate supporters of a football club being involved in the decision making of the club they support, or to become owners of the club they support.

Fan ownership is a well-established ownership model for sport clubs, particularly in Scandinavia and Germany, and is increasingly popular in Scottish football with a number of clubs, including Motherwell, Heart of Midlothian, and St Mirren in the Premier League, as well as a number of other clubs further down the football pyramid, taking this route. Recognising the benefits of this model, the Scottish Government launched a Fan Bank in May 2023 which is a loan funding scheme to help fan groups purchase a share in their local sports club, thereby supporting community ownership. This scheme can be operated without legislation, as would any wider scheme which similarly offered financial support for facilities.

The scheme was launched with an interest free loan of £350,000 which was provided to Falkirk Supporters Society in May 2023. This enabled them to increase the shareholding of small shareholders in the club to one third, thus protecting it from any future unwanted takeovers and providing security for the club going forward.

There is no dedicated budget for the Fan Bank, given the demand-led nature of the scheme. The scheme was being taken forward on a planning assumption of around £500,000 per annum from the financial transactions budget to provide support for loans, with the intention of being able to flex this according to demand. Financial transactions are used to support loan or equity investment in bodies outside the public sector.

While the Scottish Government had been in discussions with other supporter groups regarding potential support from the Fan Bank, the scheme has needed to be paused at present due to the significant reduction in the financial transactions budget for the Scottish Government, meaning there is no budget available to support further Fan Bank loans at present. It is the Scottish Government’s intention to reopen the scheme to bids when budgets allow for this. Whilst it is most likely to be football fan groups that look to take advantage of the scheme, there is no reason in principle why it could not be used in other sports and the Scottish Government would welcome discussions with interested fan groups.

Part 8: Common Good

The concept of ‘common good’ property has its origins in the Middle Ages where local communities used areas of land/property for communal purposes. The Common Good Act 1491 – still in force today – provides legal status to common good assets and creates an obligation that they be managed for the benefit of the citizens of (what was) the former royal burghs in Scotland. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (1973 Act) brought an end to the burgh system in 1975 by abolishing the town councils which had responsibility for the burghs. Their common good assets were, however, transferred to the new district or island councils and, in 1996, to the current unitary Local Authorities (Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 (1994 Act)).

Part 8 Common Good Property came into force, in part, on 13 November 2015, with the remainder coming into force on 27 June 2018. It places a statutory duty on Local Authorities to establish and maintain a register of all property held by them for the common good, and to publish their proposals and consult community bodies before disposing of, or changing, the use of common good assets.

Common good assets are the heritable (land and buildings) and moveable (things which are not heritable for example paintings, furniture, etc). All common good property falls into one of two categories – alienable or inalienable. Alienable property can be sold, leased or otherwise disposed of in a permanent or semi-permanent way that reduces public use. A Local Authority can change the use of an alienable asset without needing to get consent from a court. Inalienable property cannot have its use changed or be sold, leased or otherwise disposed of without a court order. Inalienable property tends to include town halls, market squares, parks or greens, and churches, although the status of each asset needs to be individually determined and cannot be assumed common good assets are owned by the Local Authority, although administered separately from other Local Authority funds for accounting purposes.

Due consideration has been given to both the feedback received in relation to common good via 2023 consultation on Community Wealth Building, as well as the earlier Scottish Land Commission’s report Delivery Greater Benefit from Common Good Land and Buildings in September 2019. The Scottish Government will continue to review the operation of the statutory requirements relating to common good property, including the opportunity for members of the community to participate in decision-making relating to the common good.

Part 9: Allotments

Part 9 Allotments came into force on 1 April 2018. Allotments can provide safe, healthy spaces where anyone with an interest in learning about, and participating in the act of growing food or flowers can do so. They contribute to the Scottish Government’s goal of Scotland becoming a Good Food Nation by enabling people from all walks of life to enjoy and learn about nutritious and healthy food.

In recognition of this, Part 9 of the Act consolidated, updated and simplified legislation on allotments, bringing it together in a single piece of legislation. It requires Local Authorities to take reasonable steps to provide more allotments if waiting lists exceed certain trigger points and ensures appropriate protection for Local Authorities and plot-holders.

In 2022, then Local Government Housing and Planning (LGHP) Committee undertook an inquiry into the Act’s impact on improving access to community food growing spaces. Published on 5 October 2022, their report highlighted demand for allotments and growing spaces which is not being met. It also set out recommendations for the Scottish Government and proposed actions for Local Authorities.

Whilst there have been many positive developments made since the Act came into force, it is difficult to measure its impact on allotment provision. The number of allotment sites vary greatly across the country, as does demand and the subsequent length of waiting lists for existing sites. The Scottish Government is not required to collect data published by Local Authorities relating to allotments, nor are Local Authorities required to update Scottish Ministers on the publication of these data.

Work to support Local Authorities meet their legislative responsibilities under Part 9 was already underway, running parallel to this review. As well as considering recommendations from the Committee which are within the Scottish Government’s competence, work is underway to identify alternative cost and resource efficient ways to support Local Authorities to meet Part 9 legislative requirements. This includes arranging workshops for Local Authority officers with responsibility for delivering statutory duties relating to allotments. The recent workshops explored the duties imparted by Part 9 and ways to empower ongoing knowledge exchange and sharing of best practice between Local Authority officers. A summary report of the workshops is expected imminently which will inform the Scottish Government’s next steps, working in partnership with Local Authority officers.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to building and strengthening relationships with Local Authorities, by providing helpful support and encouragement, to empower them to decide themselves how best to carry out the functions conferred on them by Part 9.

Part 10: Participation in Public Decision Making

Part 10 Participation in Public Decision Making has not been implemented in its entirety; however, it remains an option to provide a power for Scottish Ministers to make regulations to promote or facilitate participation in public decision-making, including in decisions on the allocation of resources.

The Scottish Government believes that involving people and communities in making decisions builds community capacity and can help the public sector target budgets more effectively by indentifying community priorities. Part 10 was developed as a response to calls to legislate for participatory budgeting (PB). The implementation of PB in Scotland over the past decade, without specific legislation, is perhaps an illustration that legislation may not always be the optimal approach.

PB is recognised internationally as a way for local people to have a direct say in how local money is spent. The Scottish Government supports PB as a tool for community engagement and as a resource to build on the wider development of participatory democracy in Scotland.

The PB Charter for Scotland sets out principles and good practice for communities to vote on priorities that matter to them. It aims to ensure PB is inclusive, uses good quality methods and is truly participative. The National PB Strategic Group produced Scotland’s National PB Framework which was published in July 2021 to support the drive for PB across Scotland.

In addition, following a PB Framework Agreement between the Scottish Government and COSLA, since 2021, more than 110,000 people have taken part in participatory processes and directly decided on how £154 million worth of Local Authority budgets have been spent. PB continues as an important element of participatory practice across Scotland and is an example of national and local governments working together to build innovative approaches.

As well as Local Authority PB activity, since 2022-23, over 47,000 voters from across the north east of Scotland in Moray, Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City have voted to distribute £3.5 million capital funding from the Just Transition PB Fund for 145 successful projects. The Fund provides a meaningful opportunity for communities to put forward projects that match local needs and priorities to create a greener region. PB is helping to ensure that the voices, perspectives and priorities of local communities are heard, especially those with little engagement on climate change, but who may be particularly vulnerable to its impacts. PB directs funds into communities to help them decarbonise and to play a full part in a just transition as well as raising awareness about energy transition and increasing engagement.

In Scotland, two full citizens assemblies have been delivered, effective use of service design has been developed and a significant number of other forms of participation that are more deliberative, provide participants with both evidence and support to contribute, such as citizen juries, mini-publics, lived experience panels along with increased access to digital tools.

To embed these forms of participation a working group on Institutionalising Participatory and Deliberative Democracy (IPDD) was established and the Scottish Government is continuing to work towards delivering the core recommendations of their work when resources permit. Any future focus on Part 10 will take account of the IPDD work and the Local Governance Review’s Democracy Matters approach to supporting greater community decision making.

Part 11: Non-domestic rates

Non-Domestic Rates are a property tax affecting a wide range of properties (for instance, shops, offices, billboards, schools and hospitals) and levied on all sectors – public, private (e.g. limited companies, partnerships and self-employed sole traders) and charitable.

Part 11 (Non-domestic rates) inserted section 3A in the Local Government (Financial Provisions etc.) (Scotland) Act 1962 and came into force on 31 October 2015. This provided a new power to allow Local Authorities to create their own localised non-domestic rates relief schemes to better reflect local needs, and to support communities. Before introducing a relief, the Local Authority must have regard to its expenditure and income and the interests of persons liable to pay council tax set by it. Significant use was not made of local relief powers when they were introduced.

However, on 1 April 2023, empty property relief was devolved with a concurrent financial transfer to Local Authorities to spend as they see fit including on any local relief schemes for empty property should they wish to do so. Any local relief awarded to empty properties is delivered through local discretionary powers under section 3A of the Local Government (Financial Provisions etc.) (Scotland) Act 1962. Further, Green Freeports relief will also be discretionary and delivered under section 3A of the Local Government (Financial Provisions etc.) (Scotland) Act 1962, with compensating funding mechanisms for Local Authorities in place via the local government finance settlement.

In addition to existing local relief powers, Local Authorities also have powers to make discretionary awards of certain reliefs, such as charitable rates relief or hardship relief, allowing them to tailor support based on local need, with Scottish Government generally funding 75% of the cost of discretionary relief.

Local Authorities also have powers to refuse mandatory relief if they deem the property in receipt of the relief not to be in use, or to be underused, under section 20 of the Non-Domestic Rates (Scotland) Act 2020. Further, in partnership with Local Government and other key stakeholders, the Scottish Government developed the The Non-Domestic Rates (Miscellaneous Anti-Avoidance Measures) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 under the powers conferred by the Non-Domestic Rates (Scotland) Act 2020. The use of these powers by Local Authorities is regularly monitored.

Given the wide-ranging local relief-making powers introduced by Part 11 and the ongoing use made of these powers by Local Authorities including in respect of relief for empty properties, this part was not reviewed.