When is asset transfer suitable?

Asset transfer should be considered alongside other options in the context of community management of libraries. Historically, opportunities have tended to be 'demand-led' through a community based organisation asking the local authority if it is willing to make a transfer. However, more recently local authorities have become more pro-active in looking at the potential of community organisations to take on assets and services in order to make savings and transform public services. 

Community based organisations who want to take the initiative themselves will do so, because they feel that the opportunities in asset development benefit the aims of their organisation and their community.

Experience shows that opportunities to progress an asset transfer are best undertaken when there is:

• Community appetite to do so.
• When public bodies seek to engage and involve communities in the design and delivery of services.
• Adequate time to develop a transfer proposal, and,
• When the terms of a transaction between partners are mutually beneficial.
• When facilities and services are threatened with closure, (without an alternative being contemplated).