6 CRRS Briefing Paper Series Community Assets: realising the potential? Tim Braunholtz-Speight, Issie MacPhail and Philomena de Lima Introduction The UHI Centre for Remote and Rural Studies convened a roundtable event in November 2010 that brought together practitioners, policymakers and academics from Scotland, the UK and internationally. The aims were: (i) to explore the implications of existing Scottish, UK and international research for the ownership of assets by communities; and (ii) identify regional research priorities and the key players in taking a potential research agenda forward. This paper provides an overview of key areas of discussion and debate. Keywords: Community assets; renewable energy; social justice; learning partnerships; regional policy; politics of community. Background Over the past 20 years, ownership of assets by third sector groups has become a prominent feature of community and local development in Scotland. This activity is expected to deliver a variety of public goods - for example: local, regional and national development; local capacity building; positive environmental developments; and economic diversiication, of particular relevance in areas still very dependant on primary production. The land based examples, common today in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, are expected to deliver all or some of these outputs and impacts through diversiication of local landownership in the irst instance. While some of the most publicised activity has taken place on the Scottish west coast mainland and islands, asset-owning local groups are active across Scotland. The assets may include buildings, sports pitches, reservoirs, forests, community halls and large rural estates with tourism, sporting or energy potential, as well as intangible assets such as history and culture. The purpose for engagement in community asset ownership varies from economic development, environmental improvement, cultural activities, building community or social capital, to some combination of these. Some also see asset ownership as offering routes towards independently resourcing community development. Development is seen by different actors in the third and public sectors either as economic growth, or understood as a more general conception of beneicial change in which community capacity building and ecological sustainability play a major part. Bryden (2010) suggests that capturing the beneits from public goods (e.g. continued on page 2 w ISSN 2042-2083 April 2011 No. Northbay Community Initiative, Barra. Photo courtesy of Community Energy Scotland.