Local authorities should develop a corporate approach to making decisions on how best to dispose of heritage assets that offer the optimum return for the taxpayer. They should ensure that relevant information is used to support decisions on disposals and to monitor performance against the council’s corporate aims and priorities. The decisions should be transparent and accountable to all relevant stakeholders, taking into account all related factors, promoting fairness and making best use of available resources. It is especially important to consult early with local people about major decisions to change or sell parts of their civic heritage and to respond to the community’s concerns.

Informed by public consultation as well as advice on planning policies/constraints and possible development opportunities, local authorities should outline their expectations by which they will judge any bids from interested parties (such as private developers, other public bodies, the third sector or partnerships) for the purchase or community transfer of the heritage assets, setting a clear criteria for success.

A useful way of promoting these expectations is through the planning brief,which should be prepared when disposal is considered. The brief provides informal guidance to prospective new owners and is intended to stimulate imagination and creativity on how to make best use of the heritage assetand should not be considered as a statement of absolute intent or limitation.

Local authorities can set up a scoring table to assess bids from interested parties. This table can assess each bid on an individual basis, set against the overarching objectives a local authority wishes to achieve through their disposal programme. Within this scoring table a local authority can set core objectives which must be met by all disposals; if any submitted bids do not satisfy these core objectives in a local authority’s opinion, then it has a right to veto that bid. As well as these core objectives a local authority can set desired objectives which, while not as important as core objectives, allow them to prioritise those bids that it feels meets all of the objectives of their disposal programme. The table below is an example of what such a scoring table could look like.

	Poor 1	2	3	4	Excellent 5	Veto excercised
* The proposed scheme will ensure the long term preservation of the asset and secure its features of special interest
* The proposed scheme will improve the economic, social and/or environmental well-being of the wide area
The proposed scheme will benefit community uses
The proposed scheme fits with wide regeneration and/or housing priorities of the local authority
The proposed scheme will deliver value for money in the long term

* Denotes rights for the local authority to veto

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Useful Tool: Applying a standard method to assess the benefits of disposal options

It is important that local authority decision making is as transparent as possible, ensuring that all decisions made are seen as being logical to the public based on the documented information available. The tool above builds upon the scoring table, looking in greater detail at what local authorities should consider during the decision making process.