National Asset Transfer Action Group minutes: August 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Kathleen Glazik (Chair), Community Empowerment, SG
• Malcolm Cowie (Secretariat), Community Empowerment, SG
• Dr Andrew Waugh, Local Government and Analytical Services, SG
• Dr Rachel Anderson, Local Governance and Reform Research, SG
• Martin Diver, Statistician, SG (online)
• Nye Todd, Land Reform Bill Team, SG
• Jason Lloyd, Community Land Team, SG (online)
• Neil Henderson, Statistician, SG
• Iain Mulholland, South Lanarkshire Council
• Sandra Inrig, Renfrewshire Council
• Gregor Stephen, Renfrewshire Council
• Leanne Pollock, North Lanarkshire Council
• Sylvia Smith, Glasgow Life
• Dr Gill Murray, Glasgow Caledonian University
• Rebecca Carr, Forestry and Land Scotland
• Sandra Holmes , Highland and Islands Enterprise
• Linda Gillespie, Community Ownership Support Service

Apologies:

• Dave Thomson, Community Land Team, Scottish Government
• Kimberley Guthrie, Scotland’s Towns Partnership
• Pauline Bradshaw, Glasgow City Council
• Sarah Kimmet, Perth and Kinross Council
• Elizabeth Doherty, Scottish Community Alliance
• Dr Dani Hutcheon, Glasgow Caledonian University
• Jamie McCaw, National Lottery Communities Fund
• Zoe McGuire, Audit Scotland

Items and actions

Welcome and Introductions

The Chair welcomed online and in person attendees to the meeting. The Chair welcomed Dr Gill Murray, Leanne Pollock, Sylvia Smith, Gregor Stephen, Jason Lloyd and Nye Todd who were attending their first meeting of the group. Also in attendance were Dr Rachel Anderson and Dr Andrew Waugh, researchers at Scottish Government who are supporting the data analysis work. 

Apologies were noted.

Minutes of Last Meeting

Outstanding actions from the 1 May 2025 meeting:

• The Chair thanked members for their recommendations for new group members and noted the suggestion that representatives from other relevant authorities, such as Police Scotland and further education colleges would be helpful. As part of this discussion a member suggested that the South of Scotland Enterprise should be designated as a relevant authority to the asset transfer list.
• The remit and terms of reference were updated for the group’s review and agreement.
• The Scottish Government is progressing work to gather robust asset transfer data. 

Following a late amendment request, the minutes of the last meeting held on 1 May 2025 were agreed and have been published on the National Asset Transfer Action Group webpage.

Group Remit and Terms of Reference

At the 1 May 2025 meeting, members agreed to update the group’s remit and terms of reference in response to the Part 5 Asset Transfer Findings Report.  A draft was shared prior to the meeting and following feedback, the draft was updated and approved by the group and can be accessed at: National Asset Transfer Action Group - gov.scot

Asset Transfer Data Gathering

The Chair invited Andrew Waugh, Statistician to present the Scottish Government’s approach for gathering robust asset transfer data and noted that the draft spreadsheet with instructions had been shared with the group for consideration and comment prior to the meeting.

Andrew invited views on whether the following four tabs needed a drop down list or left as free text:

• Community Transfer Body purpose for the asset (column N)
• Reason for asset transfer refusal (V)
• Council Decision Reason (for Council Reviews) (column AF)
• If original decision to refuse was upheld provide reason (column AJ)

Members felt that open text may be better for these four questions as asset transfers can be complex and there are varying ways of assessing applications. Also that some of the information may be hard to find and open text would make it easier to explain what had happened. It was agreed to keep these as free text.

Some members felt it was not feasible to capture every single detail of the asset transfer process and the Chair confirmed that for the benefit of data gathering, the process would start when the official application was submitted by the Community Transfer Body. It was also noted that it could be beneficial to capture asset transfers outwith the legislative route.  Proportionality of approach was highlighted as not all community groups need to go through the full asset transfer process and there may be other less structured approaches taken for small groups or simple transfers. However, members suggested that the Community Transfer Body legal structure could be helpful to include in the ownership worksheet. Members also highlighted that it would be difficult to provide valuation at the beginning of the process and therefore this would be included in the outcome tab only.

Iain Mulholland offered to test run the data spreadsheet.

For next steps the spreadsheet and instructions will be updated and shared with the 95 Relevant Authorities for review and an update will be provided to the group at the next meeting. The Chair stated as local authorities will be most affected by the data gathering process that she will engage with COSLA on the process.

Actions:

• Andrew will update the spreadsheet and instructions.
• The Chair will liaise with COSLA
• Ian will test the spreadsheet
• The spreadsheet and instructions will be issued to the relevant authorities for review

Part 5 Review Report – Feasibility of legislative changes

The Chair introduced a discussion on potential legislative changes to asset transfer which were highlighted in the Asset Transfer Review Report and invited initial thoughts. These were:

• Suggested changes to the Community Transfer Body membership numbers requirement for asset ownership
• Setting a minimum working day response target for relevant authorities to respond to a formal asset transfer request
• Changes to the procedural timescales permitted for the appeals and review processes

There were mixed views relating to any changes to Community Transfer Body numbers for asset transfer ownership.  Currently the requirement is 20 members and it was noted this could be challenging for some smaller geographic communities or communities of interest. However it was also noted that having less than 20 members could also be challenging as groups may struggle with resourcing enough members to run the asset. It was highlighted that alignment with Community Right to Buy legislation which has a 10 member requirement could be explored, but it was also noted that groups under this legislation tended to be much larger than 10 members.  

Regarding a minimum working day response target for relevant authorities to respond to a formal asset transfer request, the general consensus was that this could be difficult to impose due to the different structures and staff capacity within the various relevant authorities.  Members noted that timescales to respond to requests can vary due to the requirement of gathering the necessary information to ensure a robust application. 

On potential changes to the procedural timescales of 20 working days permitted for submitting appeals/ reviews under asset transfer, members noted that since the legislation was introduced in 2017 there have only been 18 appeals/reviews which could signify that the process is working well and that the 20 day limit was not a major issue. However, it was acknowledged that this period of time could be challenging for some Community Transfer Bodies.

The Chair thanked members for their feedback, noted the advantages and disadvantages highlighted and that further consideration will be given to this if required.

Any Other Business

The Chair suggested a standing item for future meetings could be ‘Hot Topics’ for example learning from the Glasgow Caledonian University led Rural Assets: Policy and practice insights from the devolved nations project which reported in September 2024.  Gill suggested learning from the Barmulloch/ Inverclyde Hub and Spoke Project and asset transfer links to community wealth building could also be considered.

Next Steps

Quarterly meetings for 2026 will be arranged, starting with January 2026.  Meetings will be held in  Atlantic Quay, Glasgow or St. Andrdew’s House, Edinburgh.  Dates to be confirmed.