Making the case for the value of parish and town councils in devolution
In 2025, the LPIP discussion paper The Future of Local Democracy: Devolution and the Need to Empower Town and Parish Councils (Burnett, Leman and Ozarow, 2025) found that parish and town councils were under-recognised and under-resourced within the devolution settlement. It called for capacity, skills and funding models that account for the different kinds of value communities generate, including the social, cultural and environmental value that conventional cost-benefit analysis does not surface. The report was part of a wider effort to lift the profile of parish and town councils in devolution at a national level by those working closely with the sector.
Since then, Dr Amy Burnett (Middlesex University, Valuing Community), Cllr Dr Daniel Ozarow (Middlesex University, London) and Dr Jason Leman (Citizen Network) have been developing practical guidance on asset transfer for parish and town councils. Parish and town councils are central to asset transfers from principal authorities to communities: they are the scale of government closest to communities. With around 10,000 councils and many thousands of volunteer councillors, they are where transferred assets and services land as devolution moves forward.
The work by the authors has drawn on stakeholder consultation through the NALC Mastering Asset Management event, a case study in Somerset (drawing on a review commissioned by Somerset Council), analysis of both asset transfer arrangements in areas that have already been through local government reorganisation and asset transfer patterns since the Localism Act 2011.
The resulting guidebook, Valuing Assets (Part B): A Guidebook for the Parish and Town Council Sector, is, as far as the authors are aware, the first value-based guide to asset transfer written for parish and town councils. It will be published early in 2027.
Their research seeks to shift the dial where, time and again, communities and parish and town councils and community groups may find themselves reacting to the decisions of “higher tiers” of government. It is an invitation to consider a renewed model of integrated parish-government relationships in relation to the emerging architecture of devolution.
The guidebook is one of a series of LPIP outputs that use ecological citizenship as a lens to bring the less visible aspects of place into view, and that set out ideas for regenerative devolution. Devolution usually means passing powers from national government to strategic and principal authorities. Double devolution goes a step further, passing assets and services on to parish and town councils. Regenerative devolution is devolved governance designed to actively restore ecological and social capacity, rather than simply redistribute administrative functions. In asset transfer, this means assets come with the resources, support and recognition of their full value needed to look after them, rather than passing on costs and potential liabilities. It also relates to localising the impact economy by encouraging reinforcing regenerative feedback loops that surface and amplify community value.
What the guidebook covers
The work will be published in two parts: Part A, Understanding Asset Transfer: A Discussion Paper for the Parish and Town Council Sector, and Part B, Valuing Assets: A Guidebook for the Parish and Town Council Sector.
Part A sets out the argument and the context. Using parish council precept data as an indicator of the trajectory of asset transfer, it traces its evolution from the Localism Act 2011 through to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026. Case studies from Cornwall, Somerset and Milton Keynes ground the argument in practice, covering key issues such as financial pressures and whether frameworks supporting Community Asset Transfer exist. Part A then identifies five interacting forces that shape transfer decisions: bureaucratic processes, legal considerations, political pragmatism, the influence of personalities, and ideas of communitarianism and localism in asset transfer negotiations. Finally, it looks at the opportunities and risks of asset transfer through three questions: where is the money to resource the process, where are the people to support the process, and where is the voice of community within the process.
Part B is the practical toolkit. It aims to support parish and town councils to better understand, surface, communicate and celebrate the value – and risks – embedded in existing assets. It is underpinned by a recognition and resourcing deficit in the relationship between parish councils and other scales of government identified in our 2025 discussion paper. Part B offers nine exercises, based partly on the value typology developed in Amy Burnett’s British Academy Policy Innovation Fellowship. Together, these aim to help councils understand the value of their asset, how these values can reinforce each other, how they depend on partner bodies and organisations, and the broader political and governance context of the transfer. The exercises can help councils build an evidenced summary of an asset’s value to take into negotiations with principal authorities, funders and community partners.
The forthcoming report and guidebook have been strongly endorsed by the National Association of Local Councils, the national body that supports parish councils:
“The forthcoming asset transfer report and guide for parish and town councils are a must-read for parish and town councils of all sizes across England. As well as being an asset transfer bible for those parish and town councils in areas undergoing local government re-organisation, this report will generally prove invaluable to all other parish and town councils in areas not located in areas experiencing local government re-organisation – to help them take a breath before adopting liabilities which are being transferred to them masked as assets. This marks the second seminal parish-specific publication in the last year from the research team and is high-value, inside-track, cutting-edge research which clerks and councillors at all 10, 000 English parish and town councils should read”.
Chris Borg, Policy Manager, National Association of Local Councils
What the authors found
Asset transfer is speeding up. Since the Localism Act 2011, many assets have moved from principal authorities to parish and town councils, particularly those with a larger tax base. Where principal authorities have a well-embedded Community Asset Transfer process, transfers are more likely to be fair, unless severe financial pressure is driving them. Ultimately, financial and bureaucratic power rests with the principal authority.
Asset transfer comes in many forms. Terms range from the sale of freehold for a nominal sum to sale at market value. Profitable assets such as car parks are rarely part of asset transfer, especially before a local government reorganisation.
Asset transfer is political and not just shaped by a simple business case, with these political forces interacting with each other and the process. Awareness of these motivations can help inform the approach to asset transfer that is adopted by the parish council.
A “fool’s budget” risks turning an asset into a liability. Deferring maintenance and cutting staff can balance the books in year one and leave structural problems years later. The research found that parish councils may need precept rises to look after assets in the long term or that others took on services more complex than they first realised.
Hidden value goes uncounted. Cost-benefit analysis can, for instance, miss the GP visits that a community hall helps prevent by bringing people together, the social ties a park builds over decades, and the knowledge that a heritage building carries. By assessing the different forms of value, the parish council can better understand and demonstrate the fuller worth of an asset and what will support its impact on the community.
Key takeaway: Regenerative devolution is possible, but it needs to be accompanied by a hidden value assessment before transfer and a way to empower parish councils to surface this.
What councils can do now?
Councils can start assessing value, recognising their community partners and agreeing resourcing before terms are signed, without waiting for government to require it.
- Don’t feel limited to the first option that the principal authority offers. Ask how much responsibility it will keep, what resources come with the asset, and whether there is time for residents to help shape the decision.
- Ask for an independent condition survey and an extended (i.e. 10-year) maintenance projection before agreeing terms. An asset taken on without a maintenance endowment is a liability.
- Think through who your potential partners are, the governance context, and the political forces that are shaping the asset transfer, both within the principal authority and within your own council. Devise strategies to navigate these and better understand them.
- Change the question you ask. Not just “can we afford this?” but “what is this asset worth and is the offer proportionate to that worth?”.
Get involved
Parish and town councils and community groups that would like to read an advance copy of the discussion paper (Part A), the guidance document (Part B) or the forthcoming policy briefs, or are interested in working with the authors to test how a wider range of value can be recognised in asset transfer decisions, are invited to contact: hello@valuingcommunity.co.uk, jason@demquire.org and D.Ozarow@mdx.ac.uk.
Author profiles
- Dr Amy Burnett is an LPIP Place Fellow, Senior Research Fellow at Middlesex University’s Centre for Enterprise, Environment and Development Research (CEEDR) and Founder of Valuing Community.
- Dr Jason Leman is Neighbourhood Democracy Lead at Citizen Network
- Dr Daniel Ozarow is Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University Faculty of Business and Law and a town councillor in Elstree and Borehamwood
This research was produced as part of an LPIP Place Fellowship, which builds on earlier British Academy Policy Innovation Fellowship research into how community organisations create value that standard metrics miss, with added insights on place from a lens of ecological citizenship. The authors would like to thank the LPIP Hub for supporting this research and the British Academy for funding the previous Policy Innovation Fellowship that this LPIP research has built on.
Further links
Access the Presentation Slides presented on 2nd October 2026 to NALC’s Smaller Councils Presentation – Valuing Assets in Devolution
The British Academy’s Measuring Social and Cultural Infrastructure (SCI) framework.
Testers invited to surface the hidden value of community: The Valuing Community Mapper, a free tool to surface the multiple dimensions of value (developed by Keystone Ecological based on research by Dr Amy Burnett, funded by the British Academy) – testers of the tool are invited to help refine the tool as a way of surfacing the hidden value of community. This also seeks to integrate the British Academy’s SCI framework.
Find out more about the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this analysis post are those of the author and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham.