{"id":379,"date":"2008-05-08T18:46:17","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T18:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=379"},"modified":"2010-03-22T18:46:51","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T18:46:51","slug":"hazel-blears-backs-revolution-to-recycle-buildings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=379","title":{"rendered":"Hazel Blears backs &#8216;revolution to recycle&#8217; buildings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>Communities  Secretary Hazel Blears has today (28 April) unveiled a series of  measures to back a people&#8217;s revolution to recycle buildings by putting  real power in the hands of locals to support communities during the  downturn and beyond. The tougher economic climate has led to renewed  interest in communities maintaining local assets, from post offices to  pubs.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the Government&#8217;s empowerment  agenda, Ms Blears has announced a new single advice line &#8211; 0845 345 4564  &#8211; and other Government support to make it easier for people to take  control of community assets, from community centres to theatres. Driving  this revolution in the public sector, there are a range of options for  local councils to give people real power including handing over  buildings as a gift to a community group, selling at below market price,  or keeping the building off the market while a local project develops  their plans and secures the funding. Already, there are estimated to be  over \u00a31billion worth of buildings under community control &#8211; with some  agreements dating back to the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>But from today, taking on a local  building will become easier. As well as a new single national advice  line for anyone wishing to find out how to do it, Ms Blears highlighted  key projects that have set the standard &#8211; including Coin Street  Community Builders in London and the Goodwin Development Trust in Hull &#8211;  that anyone wishing to do it can learn from. A new Asset Transfer Unit  will give local people the information they need to get through any  planning, legal and financial barriers.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"http:\/\/www.communities.gov.uk\/news\/corporate\/1213182\" href=\"http:\/\/www.communities.gov.uk\/news\/corporate\/1213182\">http:\/\/www.communities.gov.uk\/news\/corporate\/1213182<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has today (28 April) unveiled a series of measures to back a people&#8217;s revolution to recycle buildings by putting real power in the hands of locals to support communities during the downturn and beyond. The tougher &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=379\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}