Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require owners of buildings registered as assets of community value who apply for a demolition order to offer the asset for sale to a local community group before demolition is granted.

The Government has committed to improving the assets of community value scheme to ensure that community groups are given the best opportunity to take into ownership the buildings and land which they have identified as being important to them. As part of work we will look at the effectiveness of the existing regime to ensure that any legislation the Government introduces will meet our objective of supporting communities to protect those assets that are under threat.