The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 introduces a right for community bodies to make requests to all local authorities, Scottish Ministers and a wide-ranging list of public bodies, for any land or buildings they feel they could use to better effect.

Community bodies can request ownership, lease or other rights as they wish, through a process known as Community Asset Transfer (CAT). The Act requires those public authorities to assess requests transparently against specific criteria, and to agree the request unless there are reasonable grounds for refusal. Section 95 of the Act requires the Council to publish an Annual Report setting out the number of asset transfer requests received and their outcomes and anything the relevant authority has done to promote the use of asset transfer and support community transfer bodies to make requests.