Kirklees Council expects its latest three asset transfers to be completed by the end of the financial year in April 2026.

Honley Village Hall, the HUDAWI Centre in Huddersfield and the DRAM Centre in Dalton are ready to be handed over to community-led organisations.

Since 2013 Kirklees Council has completed 27 Community Asset Transfers and a rigorous process is in place to ensure community groups have the skills, expertise and effective business plans needed to run the buildings successfully. Transfers can take 18 months to two years to complete.

Rather than simply selling them at auction, the council responds to community need handing over assets at no cost. The council now issues a 125-year lease so it retains some control.

The council offers grants for urgent repair works, retrospective match funding loans of up to £100,000 and also revenue funding for running costs in the first two years.

Honley Village Hall is to be taken over by the Honley Village Community Trust Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), set up in 2021.

The HUDAWI Centre in Great Northern Street – deemed surplus to requirements by Kirklees Council – is being taken on by the Black Business Support Agency (BBSA), working in partnership with the HUDAWI Consortium.

The BBSA, a Community Interest Company, will initially take on the lease before it’s later reassigned to the consortium once it’s registered as a CIO.

The HUDAWI Centre is renowned as the “spiritual home” of Huddersfield’s African and Caribbean community.

The DRAM Centre in Dalton is being transferred to the Moldgreen Amateur Rugby League Football Club (DRAM Holdings) CIC.

The RL club already plays there and the sports centre is a focal point for the local community.

The centre, built in 2004 at a cost of £1.6 million, is now valued at £290,000. The law allows councils to transfer assets to the community if they improve the economic, social or environmental wellbeing of its area.

When approval was given for the asset transfer of the HUDAWI Centre and the DRAM Centre in September 2025, Clr Graham Turner, Cabinet member for finance and regeneration, said: “Community asset transfers are a fantastic opportunity to give communities more control over local assets enabling them to create community hubs, where the needs of the community are front and centre.”

Also in the process of an asset transfer is Longfield Avenue Recreation Ground in Golcar – now home to Golcar United – and land behind Denby Dale Library in Denby Dale.

Golcar United to be a community hub for the whole of the Colne Valley