The Community Asset Transfer of Leisure Facilities in the UK: A Review and Research Agenda
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RESEARCH PAPERS
The Community Asset Transfer of Leisure Facilities in the UK: A Review and Research Agenda Geoff Nichols1 • Lindsay Findlay-King2
•
Deborah Forbes3
The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This paper reviews recent work on community asset transfers (CAT): a transfer of management of facilities from the public sector to the third sector, largely led by volunteers. The emergence of CATs is placed in the context of the development of community organisations and their relation to the state. Transfer has been stimulated by cuts in local government budgets since 2010. The review focusses on leisure facilities because these are non-statutory and so more vulnerable to cuts in public expenditure. The experience of CATs is reviewed, including: the motivations of local government and volunteers; the transfer process and management of CATs post-transfer; and the market position of facility types. The methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks used in research are contrasted; in particular, how these have balanced agency and structure in analysing a contested neoliberalist discourse. The practicalities of research in this area are considered before concluding with research questions. Keywords Community asset transfer Voluntary association Leisure and culture
& Lindsay Findlay-King [email protected] Geoff Nichols [email protected] Deborah Forbes [email protected] 1
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
2
Department of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
3
University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Introduction This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of research into community asset transfer (CAT) of leisure and cultural facilities since 2010, leading to research questions. Community asset transfers are community-based organisations (Aiken et al. 2011) which have emerged in response to cuts in public expenditure since 2010. They involve a transfer from local government management to management by volunteers. Thus researching CATs contributes to a debate about where the boundary should lie between statutory responsibility and voluntary initiative (Lindsey et al. 2018). Our focus is on the UK; however, implications will be relevant to other countries where neoliberalism has influenced a reduction in the role of the state. Within the UK, differences between England, Northern Ireland and Scotland are noted although they are all influenced by broadly similar political and economic circumstances. The paper has eight sections. We firstly define CAT, as distinct from co-production and social enterprises and as a particular type of community based organisation. Secondly, we describe the literature review strategy. The academic review was complemented by a structured discussion of policy makers that provided leads to recent survey work and other ‘grey literature’. These sources inform the following sections of the paper. Thirdly, we justify the focus on leisure facilities; such as sports cent
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