2. Transfer of property to community bodies
Registered community bodies can request to buy, lease, manage or use the iCentres we own under the Community Empowerment Act. To make an asset transfer request, an organisation needs to be a "community transfer body" as it is defined in section 77 of the Act.
A community body must set out its plans for the property, detailing what benefits it will bring. We would consider whether proposals will improve economic development, regeneration, health, or social or environmental wellbeing, or reduce inequalities. We must agree to the request unless there are reasonable grounds for refusal.
All interested proposals would be assessed in line with the criteria set out in the Community Empowerment Act. All decisions would be assessed with recommendations provided to VisitScotland leadership group, Board, and notification would be provided to Scottish Government of any decision.
A registered community body can put in a note of interest at anytime. If there was interest from both a public body and a community body, we would seek advice from Scottish Government. If you would like to register your interest in an iCentre, please contact our team on iCentrecontact@visitscotland.com.
Our teams are engaging with stakeholders and where community bodies register an interest in taking over any of our owned iCentres, we will engage with them in that process in line with our duties under the Act.
If there is no community interest the next stage would be to progress to the open market.
