Tony Rich of Rich Regeneration
What is meant by valuing worth? It is a process and tool developed by Birmingham City Council as part of this programme.
Tony Rich – a consultant who runs Rich Regeneration – was brought in to do some work on Measuring the Social Value and Impact of Asset Transfer. He has also written this Guide to Managing Risks in Asset transfer for Communities and Local Government for the Department of Communities and Local Government. He was asked to research possible risks and mitigation measures and, based on regional consultation events with local authorities and people from the third sector. You can download a pdf of that report by clicking here.
We managed to speak to Tony at the event run on march 23rd to spread learning from the Community Asset transfer programme in Birmingham. You can listen to his thoughts on how to measure social value below:
[podcast]http://communityasset.podnosh.com/files/2010/04/Tonyrichassettransfer.mp3[/podcast]
He outlines some key advanatges to finding new ways to value the social and economic worth of transferring assets to community groups:
- Coming up with ways to place a value on what happens help councillors understand why they would support community asset transfer. That encourages more asset transfers.
- Captures the value of volunteer effort
- Can be offset against the price of a piece of land – so justifying discount of a market rent.
- Encourages community groups to think about the value they give to their community and what extra value they can get from having a building. It gives people new tools to telling the story of the benefit they bring.
The end result can be a figure for the social value of the building being used more intensively.
Tony’s advice was:
- To a council officer this work is about going out and making partnerships with community groups. It can’t be done from a desk. The building transfer is just the start, not the end.
- Community groups have to understand they can’t take for granted they are doing good work. They have to be able to make their case and demonstrate it in ways that different audiences understand.
Tony gave this presentation which fleshes out the detail:
All thought provoking, please feel free to comment.