What's actually happened in the last two years? I keep hearing the law has changed.

what has happenedENG

What the rules say

The Community Ownership Fund is now closed. There will be no further application windows on the COF programme.

legislation.gov.uk — Community Ownership Fund Round 4: how to express your interest in applying - GOV.UK, last updated 23 December 2024

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

Two things, in this order. In December 2024 the government closed the Community Ownership Fund and said there would be no further rounds - the money that had been buying these buildings stopped. On the same page it said what it would do instead: replace the community right to bid with a strengthened right to buy. That became law on 29 April 2026. Since then the government has made two commencement regulations bringing parts of the Act into force - mayoral voting in June, audit and pensions in July - and neither of them includes the community right to buy. So the position today is that the money has gone and the right has not arrived. That is not a complaint about anybody; it is simply where the gap is, and it is why acting under the current rules matters more now than it did two years ago.

The fund operated UK-wide; the replacement measures described on the same page are England-only.

What to do

1. Stop looking for the Community Ownership Fund. GOV.UK say so on its own application page.
2. Do not wait for the new right. No date has been published for it.
3. Use the current route - nomination, then the moratorium - and start on the money at the same time.
4. If the building belongs to your council, ask about asset transfer at a discount before looking for a grant.
5. Check for a Commencement No. 3 before relying on any of this. Search legislation.gov.uk for the Act's name.