Community Asset Transfer (CAT) is not just about the transfer of land, buildings and structures. Rather it is part of a wider picture in helping communities meet their shared aspirations and visions.
It is about helping and empowering communities make best use of their local assets to become resilient, entrepreneurial and thriving in a fiscal climate where the capacity for councils to continue to deliver services in the traditional manner becomes challenging.
The policy intent of this strategy was agreed as follows:
'to empower communities through their ownership of properties across the region. The primary purpose is community benefit with a secondary but aspect that it makes a positive contribution to our long term budget position'.
In order to achieve the policy intent of the strategy we have identified 4 specific objectives which will shape the detailed activity we undertake:
- to promote CAT as a key aspect of community empowerment
- to support community groups throughout the CAT process
- to ensure transparency and fairness in our decision-making
- to put the customer first and respond to what our service users (CAT) groups and people supporting them are telling us about future improvements