'Right to Buy may not stop pub closures'
The Government's Community Right to Buy scheme will do little to save local services such as pubs from closure and could be hijacked to stifle development and economic growth, warned the British Property Federation (BPF).
The scheme, first set out in the Localism Bill, will give local communities a chance to bid to take over assets that are important to them.
Community groups would be able to nominate an asset to be listed with the local authority, and would then have a window of opportunity to organise a bid if the asset was to be sold.
However, the BPF said that the consultation document reveals communities will only be able to list the building and not the service that operates from within it. The consultation ended on 3 May.
"It is misleading of the Government to portray the Community Right to Buy scheme as a mechanism for local communities to keep services open," said BPF chief executive Liz Peace.
"If, for example, a local pub faces closure and the community manage to purchase it they would take ownership of the building and not the service. They would have to take on and organise this for themselves.
"As other provisions in the Localism Bill allow services run by local authorities to be taken over by communities using the Community Right to Challenge, you do have to question what the Community Right to Buy scheme brings to the table.
"Any community group wishing to purchase a community asset should have to prove their ability to raise the money for the purchase. Including this measure will help reduce incidence of vexatious applications and go some way towards providing peace of mind for property owners affected."
Unintended consequences
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) also warned of the "damaging unintended consequences".
It added that giving a community group time to register its intentions and then compile a business plan "could force a delay in the sale of one of these properties for up to six months and could skew the market, reducing the value of such assets".
The BRC said the uncertainty and complexity of purchasing listed land would discourage investors from choosing these sites, and it feared that listing could be "abused" as a way to block development.
