Not all buildings or land are suitable for transfer, and some may be a drain on resources and generate too little income. Any one running a public building has to be confident that they can meet a raft of regulations covering public health and safety and disabled access. The income from utilising the building has to be sufficient to pay for:

• staff time to manage and develop the asset
• ongoing costs of heat, light, water, insurance, maintenance, repairs and security
• putting money aside for future larger scale repairs, renewals and refurbishment

Asset transfer does not need to be outright. It could start as a local management arrangement, progress to a leasehold term, and eventually lead to freehold sale or transfer.

Local authorities may want to ensure the value of the asset is retained by the community through insisting on an ‘asset lock’ in the transfer agreement, which prevents a future sale to private ownership.

By law, any building or land intended for public use must be accessible to disabled people. Under the Disability Discrimination Act (1995 and 2004) owners of public buildings must take reasonable steps to tackle physical features that act as a barrier to disabled people. In practice this means things like replacing steps with ramps, widening doorways to allow wheelchair access, and making signs larger for people with visual impairment. Multi-story buildings may need to install lifts, which can be very expensive.

Although all council buildings should already be compliant, buildings that have been left derelict may require considerable refurbishment.