Anne spoke in a debate about protecting the Oakfield Campus in Swindon

Anne Snelgrove (South Swindon) (Lab): What support his Department is giving to third sector organisations seeking greater involvement in the management of community resources. [211621]

The Minister for the Cabinet Office (Edward Miliband): Following more than 100 eligible bids, the £30 million community assets programme has been provisionally allocated to 38 projects where third sector organisations will take on under-used assets from local authorities and refurbish and develop them for the benefit of local people. I congratulate everyone involved in the successful bids on their outstanding work, and I look forward to that progress being built on in the forthcoming community empowerment White Paper.

Anne Snelgrove: The university of Bath has sadly pulled out of Swindon, leaving a wonderful campus building at its Oakfield site in my constituency. Many local people believe that it should be turned over to the community as one of its assets. What advice will my right hon. Friend give to local groups and the local authority to enable them to achieve that?

Edward Miliband: This may be one of a number of requests that we receive this morning about local projects. I pay tribute to the organisations that my hon. Friend referred to and suggest that the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Corby (Phil Hope), who has responsibility for the third sector, meets her to talk about the different funding streams that are available. The £30 million community assets fund has obviously been allocated, and we hope to build on it in the community empowerment White Paper, but a number of other funds, loans and grants are available. As I said, I suggest that my hon. Friend the Minister meets my hon. Friend the Member for South Swindon (Anne Snelgrove) to see whether more can be done.