Listing a building as an asset of community value

Listing a building as an asset of community value planning tool does one thing well and several things not at all. It gives a community group a pause before a sale and a chance to raise money. It does not stop a sale, it does not give a right of first refusal, and it does not prevent a planning permission.

Understanding that limit before you start is the difference between a campaign that achieves something and one that ends in disappointment nine months later. The power comes from the Localism Act 2011 and the regulations made under it.

What listing does and does not prevent

A listing places the building on a register held by the local authority. If the owner then wants to make a qualifying disposal, they must tell the council, and a moratorium period follows during which a community group can prepare a bid.

That is the whole of the legal effect on a sale. After the moratorium the owner may sell to whomever they choose, at whatever price, and they are under no obligation to accept a community offer or even to consider it. Owners can also claim compensation from the council for certain losses caused by the listing.

It does not prevent the owner from continuing to use the building, from closing it, from letting it, from applying for planning permission, or from carrying out works that need no permission. What listing does and does not do covers that ground in more detail, and it is worth reading before a group commits to a campaign.

Who may nominate and what qualifies

Nominations can be made by a parish council, a neighbourhood forum, an unincorporated community group with at least 21 members registered to vote locally, a charity, a community interest company, a community benefit society or a company limited by guarantee. There must be a local connection, and the regulations define what that means.

The land or building qualifies if its main current use, disregarding anything ancillary, furthers the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community, and it is realistic to think that use can continue. A recent past use also qualifies where it is realistic to think that a use furthering social wellbeing could resume within the next five years.

Social interests are defined broadly and include cultural, recreational and sporting interests. That breadth is why pubs, village halls, libraries, sports grounds, shops in isolated villages and swimming pools make up most of the registers.

Some land is excluded outright. Residential property with its garden, subject to limited exceptions such as living accommodation that is ancillary to a pub, along with operational land of statutory undertakers and licensed caravan sites.

The nomination and the council's decision

The nomination is a written document, and councils publish their own forms. It has to identify the land precisely, explain the current or recent use, set out why that use furthers social wellbeing, give the reasons for thinking the use can continue or resume, and supply the names of the owner and occupiers so far as the nominating body knows them.

The council must decide within eight weeks. If it lists the asset, it notifies the owner, the occupier and the parish council, and enters the building on the register. If it refuses, it gives reasons.

Evidence is what separates successful nominations. Attendance figures the group holds, minutes, photographs of events, a petition, bookings records, letters from user groups. A nomination consisting of assertion that the building is much loved is easy for an owner to challenge.

The owner may ask for an internal review within eight weeks of being notified, and may appeal a review decision to the First-tier Tribunal. Many contested listings are decided on whether the use was ancillary and whether continuation is realistic.

The moratorium and the right to bid

When the owner wants to make a relevant disposal, they notify the council. An interim moratorium of six weeks then runs, during which a community interest group can ask in writing to be treated as a potential bidder.

If such a request is made, a full moratorium of six months runs from the owner's notification. The owner cannot complete a qualifying disposal during that period, except to a community interest group. After the six months, the owner is free to sell to anyone for a further protected period, and the process does not restart.

Six months sounds generous and is not. A group needs a business plan, a valuation, a survey, a legal structure capable of holding property and committed funding, and community share offers take time to prepare. Start that work when the building is listed, not when the notice arrives.

Not every transfer counts. Certain disposals, including some transfers between family members and transfers of businesses as going concerns, fall outside the regime, which is a common route around a listing.

Weight as a material consideration in planning

National guidance recognises that listing may be a material consideration in a planning decision. In practice it is a modest one, sitting alongside local plan policies protecting community facilities, which usually do the heavier lifting.

A listing is most useful as evidence rather than as a trump card. It shows that a community use was real and valued, which supports an objection based on a policy resisting the loss of community facilities and puts pressure on any marketing evidence the applicant relies on.

Where a planning application is made for redevelopment, respond to the application on planning grounds, using the listing as part of the case. An objection that relies on the listing alone will be given the weight it deserves, which is not much. Where the applicant has consulted the community, the Statement of Community Involvement submitted with the application is worth reading closely for what it leaves out.

What listing does to permitted development rights

Historically, listing a pub removed its permitted development rights to change use or be demolished. Since 2017 those rights have been removed for all pubs, listed or not, so a change of use or demolition needs planning permission in every case.

For other building types, an asset of community value listing still removes certain permitted development rights, and the demolition of a listed asset falls outside the permitted development route. Check the current position in the General Permitted Development Order rather than relying on advice written before 2017, because this is the part of the regime that has moved most.

Renewing and defending a listing

A listing lasts five years and then expires. It does not renew automatically, and the most common failure is a group that wins a listing, celebrates, and lets it lapse in year six while the building is still at risk.

Diarise the expiry date the week the listing is confirmed. Keep the evidence file current, with a short annual note recording use, events and community involvement, so the renewal nomination can be prepared in an afternoon rather than rebuilt from memory. If the building changes hands, check whether the new owner has served a notice and whether the listing has been reviewed.

One honest point. Most listed assets are never bought by the community, and the real value of the register is usually the time it buys and the seriousness it signals. That is worth having. It is just not the same as saving a building. The process for putting a nomination together is set out in nominating an asset of community value, and the wider set of supporting documents a developer would need is on the report index.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.