Sale proceeds would then be returned to the group to match Big Lottery and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grants.

Glasgow City Council’s Executive Committee today (27 June 2008) agreed recommendations which would return vacant land and property to productive use and support local area regeneration at the same time.

These policy changes will also help redress the balance of Big Lottery funding that Glasgow receives. At the moment the city gets less than its anticipated share of funding from the organisation.

The report recommends that the Council amends its current policy of using long term leases to sell properties to community organisations, where ‘community ownership’ is required for Big Lottery funding.

The Big Lottery’s Growing Community Assets (GCA) programme, which helps local communities become sustainable by supporting them to acquire or develop properties for their use, mainly favours applications with community ownership of a property asset already in place.

To help organisations satisfy funding conditions for the GCA programme the Council is proposing to sell properties to community organisations and recycle the proceeds of any asset sales as grant aid to the group, to match fund Big Lottery and ERDF grant applications.

This plan could help a number of regeneration projects across the city including Maryhill Burgh Hall Trust’s refurbishment, whose application for funding has twice been rejected and the Ardoch House project put forward by Possil Renewal Ltd who have been told by Big Lottery that their application is likely to be rejected because, amongst other things, they do not own the buildings.

Other projects, using buildings owned by the Council, which are currently seeking, or are likely to seek, Big Lottery funding from the GCA programme include:

• the proposed refurbishment of the Sir John Maxwell School (South West Regeneration Agency) once it is released for development;
• the proposed refurbishment of Govanhill Baths (Govanhill Baths Trust);
• the refurbishment of Elder Park Farmhouse (Linthouse Urban Village);
• the proposed refurbishment of the former St Margaret’s Church in Oatlands (Glasgow Building Preservation Trust); and
• the proposed refurbishment of the former Dalmarnock Primary School (East End Regeneration Agency).

The Council owned properties which are likely to be subject to this policy will be vacant and in need of upgrading or refurbishing. In many cases they will also be A, B or C listed buildings which will be given a new lease of life by organisations who hope to operate their projects from them.

As most projects will also involve some degree of commercial funding, with loans secured against an organisation’s property, the Council will also put plans in place to help groups deal with the financial aspects of running a project to ensure significant historical buildings are not repossessed by commercial companies.

Councillor George Ryan, Executive Member for Development and Regeneration, said: “As restrictions on financial backing for community organisations becomes commonplace we want to help alleviate the tight financial situation that many of these groups find themselves in and support them in their quest to find new sources for funding.

“Releasing vacant properties for local regeneration projects will also bring them back into productive use while empowering local communities to refurbish and develop them to suit their needs.”