So what can we actually do today?

what to do nowENG

What the rules say

The council may list your property as a community asset to give local groups the chance to bid for it if you decide to sell.

legislation.gov.uk — Community right to bid: appeal against a listing decision - GOV.UK, last updated 31 July 2025

The page quoted here is not watched yet, so this page cannot say whether it has changed.

Get it listed as an Asset of Community Value, and start on the money in the same week. Read GOV.UK's sentence carefully - it is written to the owner, and it is exact about what listing does. It gives local groups the CHANCE TO BID. It does not stop a sale, it does not set a price, and it does not give you first refusal. What it buys is time: once a listed building is put up for sale, a moratorium runs, and during it a community group can try to put an offer together. At the end of it the owner may still sell to whoever they like. That is the whole of the current right, and it is why the change in the law matters so much.

ENGLAND. Assets of Community Value under the Localism Act 2011 are an England and Wales regime; Scotland has separate and different community right to buy legislation of its own.

What to do

1. Ask your council for its Asset of Community Value nomination form. Search 'assets of community value' plus your council's name, or use GOV.UK's find-your-council service.
2. Get the nomination in now. The clock that matters starts when the owner decides to sell, not when you notice.
3. While you wait, work out what the building would cost and how you would run it. A group that cannot show money at the end of the moratorium has spent the pause and gained nothing.
4. Ask the council what happens next and when - the process and the timings are theirs, and they differ.
5. If the council refuses the listing, ask for the reason in writing. There is a review and an appeal route.