Today Save Birmingham goes public with our letter to Birmingham City Council after leaders failed to respond by the deadline. The Council is breaking its own promises of fairness, transparency and partnership on community asset disposals and we are demanding urgent action.
Here is our letter in full:
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Dear Councillors John Cotton and Sharon Thompson
I am writing to you on behalf of the Save Birmingham (SB) campaign regarding Birmingham City Council’s (BCC) behaviour in relation to the potential disposal of the city’s community assets.
We are outraged at the manner in which the council has been conducting itself and in disbelief at the clear lack of respect they are showing for the city’s community organisations that are attempting to engage with them.
On 7 November 2023, councillors unanimously passed a motion committing to protect heritage, cultural and community places and to work with the newly formed SB campaign. Following this, on 13 November 2023, BCC and SB issued a Joint Statement of Intent setting out a shared commitment to develop a fair and transparent city-wide strategy for community assets, one that would empower local residents and organisations to play a central role in the future of their neighbourhoods.
In the 2 years since, the approach taken by Corporate Landlord and Legal Services has been the opposite of what was agreed.
- There has been no openness about the overall strategy or the decision-making criteria being applied.
- There has been no fairness or consistency in communication with community groups.
- There has been no clarity around whether Community Asset Transfer (CAT) remains an available route.
- And there has been little to no timeliness or responsiveness in correspondence, with emails and queries from SB, BVSC and community organisations routinely going unanswered for weeks or months, if responded to at all.
The approach being taken by Corporate Landlord and Legal Services is opaque, inconsistent, and slow, bearing little resemblance to the commitments made publicly by the Council or the principles jointly agreed with SB in November 2023. It is also in direct contrast to its own commitments to working in partnership with Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) organisations across the city, as proposed within the Shaping Birmingham’s Future Together (SBFT) initiative. The result is confusion, delay, and growing mistrust.
The Save Birmingham campaign is requesting that you take the following action:
- Publicly reaffirm the Council’s commitment to the Joint Statement of Intent of November 2023 and meet with Save Birmingham to discuss how the Council can realign its asset disposal processes with the principles agreed.
- Hold a formal discussion at Cabinet and/or Full Council to agree the future framework for community asset disposals and sector engagement.
- Provide written transparency on the asset disposal process and expected timelines, including whether CAT remains an active route.
- Commission an independent scrutiny review into the conduct, governance and communication practices of Corporate Landlord and Legal Services relating to community assets.
We know that BCC is capable of running effective, proportionate and fair processes when there is the will to do so. The Community Centre CAT process, led collaboratively by officers, members and community representatives, was a positive example of what an open and fair approach looks like.
In contrast to this, the processes and communication relating to the disposal of Youth Centres and Libraries is opaque and drawn out, leaving community groups confused and frustrated.
SB has serious concerns that BCC is no longer committed to considering CAT as a viable solution. We have seen email evidence from Corporate Landlord informing a community group that CAT will no longer be used as a method of asset disposal moving forwards. If an alternative form of lease is now being proposed, the details of this and the process that will be followed should be openly and transparently communicated. They have not been.
Despite referring to CAT in relation to Youth Centres, the process has not been followed and information regarding an alternative process to CAT has not been adequately communicated.
We also have serious concerns regarding the manner in which the disposal of some of the city’s libraries are being handled. We do not believe that an open and transparent selection of community organisations selected to take over the running of these assets has been followed.
This is in addition to several other examples of community assets across the city that have been held up in the CAT process for months, if not years. Some dating back to before the Section 114 notice was announced. Despite constant chasing, emails are not being responded to in a timely manner to update on progress. Some of these include:
- A community organisation that had completed the process of CAT and corresponding paperwork (including a Valuing Worth calculation) and are now being told that the offer has been rescinded and their only option is a commercial lease.
- A community development trust that also completed the CAT process and paperwork several years ago and was recently requested to submit an EoI and go back to the beginning of the process because BCC could not locate the paperwork.
This is directly preventing VCFSE sector organisations from securing grant funding to continue to deliver the vital work that they do across the city. Without a secure long-term lease, funders will not award grants to these organisations. BCC is directly causing a barrier to vital service delivery for the people of Birmingham at a time where citizens are experiencing a cost of living crisis and increasing tensions within communities.
Safe community spaces are vital for community cohesion and for bringing people from all backgrounds together to enable them to make their neighbourhoods welcoming spaces. Given the current political landscape, this is vital. BCC is actively preventing this positive community development.
Given that the financial situation leading to the Section 114 notice is now being seriously questioned and has been picked up by mainstream media, it is vital that BCC acknowledges the damaging impact the program of budget cuts are having on the citizens of Birmingham, the very people that you have been elected to serve.
BCC’s stated ambition in 2023 was to deliver “an exemplar model of community asset custodianship that can be a beacon for the rest of Britain.” That remains possible, but only if transparency, fairness and collaboration are restored as the foundation for all decisions concerning the city’s community assets.
We look forward to your commitment to undertaking our four point call to action stated above, and expect a response by Monday 10th November 2025.
Yours sincerely
Kathy Hopkin
On behalf of the Save Birmingham Steering Group
