Community protection placed on Reading FC stadium
The council offers help to Reading FC supporters concerned over the future of the club
READING’S Select Car Leasing Company Stadium – home to Reading FC – has been granted Asset of Community Value (ACV) status by the Council following a successful application by supporters.
STAR (Supporters’ Trust at Reading) submitted its ACV application earlier this year. It follows a meeting with Reading Borough Council Councillors to express the group’s concerns about the current direction of the football club. The STAR application was supported by ‘Sell Before We Dai’, a Reading FC fans group set up to force a change of ownership at the club.
ACV’s are land or buildings where, in the opinion of the local authority, the actual current use furthers the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community, and it is realistic to think that the same or another such use will continue.
The granting of an ACV means the owner of the asset is unable to dispose of it until a specified timeframe has expired.
Councillor Jason Brock, Reading Borough Council Leader, said:
“It continues to be an understandably concerning time for every Reading supporter. While the recent points deduction was the latest blow for the club's fans, it is fair to say the biggest battles to come will likely take place off the pitch.
“Both myself and Councillor Ennis - who I've asked to be our principal liaison on these issues - were happy to meet in person with representatives of the STAR supporters’ group earlier this year and pleased for the Council to receive and subsequently approve the application to make the Select Car Leasing Company Stadium an Asset of Community Value.
"I hope the designation sends a message to the owners, but I would repeat the calls that myself and Councillor Barnett-Ward made previously to Government for far better regulation and intervention nationally. Councils should not be left with such limited powers when a huge part of their area's life and soul faces real threat.”
Sarah Turner, Sell Before We Dai spokesperson and STAR Chair, said:
“We are so grateful for the support of Reading Borough Council and the helpful ruling on our ACV application.
“We have seen what’s happened to other clubs in similar situations to ours when their stadium’s future is in doubt. Being granted Asset of Community Value status offers us a glimmer of hope in what has been the most unsettling period for fans in 40 years.”
What is an ACV?
Once an asset has been listed nothing further will happen unless and until the owner decides to dispose of it, either through a freehold sale, or the grant or assignment of a qualifying lease .
Unless an exemption applies, the owner will only be able to dispose of the asset after a specified window has expired.
The first part of this window is a 6-week interim period, which will apply in all cases, from the point the owner notifies the local authority. This will allow community interest groups to make a written request to be treated as a potential bidder. If none do so in this period, the owner is free to sell their asset at the end of the 6 weeks.
If a community interest group does make a request during this interim period, then the full 6-month moratorium (again from the point the owner notifies the local authority) will operate. During this period the owner may continue to market and negotiate sales but may not exchange contracts (or enter into a binding contract to do so later). There is one exception. The owner may sell to a community interest group during the moratorium period.
After the moratorium period – either the 6 weeks if there has been no community interest, or the full 6 months – the owner is free to sell to whomever they choose and at whatever price, and no further moratorium will apply for the remainder of a protected period lasting 18 months (running from the same start date of when the owner notified the local authority of wishing to sell).
If the sale does not happen within the protected period, then the owner is not precluded from disposing of the land to the intended purchaser but will have to give notice again to the authority of the intention to dispose, and the authority will be required to trigger the moratorium periods again.