Community Empowerment Act

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 is a significant piece of legislation which will further enhance opportunities for the active participation of communities. The Act created new responsibilities and powers for the council and other public bodies to help empower communities.

Some of the opportunities for communities are briefly described below, you can find out more by visiting the Scottish Government website.

Participation Requests

The introduction of ‘participation requests’ by the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 provides communities with a new mechanism for having their say in relation to how public services are planned and delivered.

Community groups can make a participation request to the council (as well as to other public service providers) to open a dialogue on issues they feel are important, with a view to improving outcomes.

Go to our Participation Request webpage for more information 

Asset Transfer

Under the Community Empowerment Act, communities have the right to make requests to local authorities, Scottish Ministers and a range of other public bodies for the transfer of land or buildings they feel they could make better use of.

Go to our Asset Transfer webpage for more information.

Community Right to Buy

The Community Empowerment Act extends the community right to buy land to cover both urban and rural land and changes some of the procedures previously introduced by the 2003 Land Reform Act. The Act also makes provision for communities to buy land that is abandoned, neglected or detrimental to the environmental wellbeing of the community, where the owner is not willing to sell the land. You can find out more about Community Right to Buy on the Scottish Government website.