Advisory Group

DTAS has established an independent advisory group to oversee the Promoting Assets Transfer programme and provide advice and guidance on the constituent elements of the programme. The Advisory Group is made up of the following people, all of whom are involved in an individual and voluntary capacity:

Nick Allan (Argyll and Bute Council)

Nick is a Chartered Surveyor who has enjoyed a long career in both the private and public sector. He is recognised as a vastly experienced practitioner in every aspect of estates and property management, and for his contribution to the development of strategic asset management practice across the Scottish central and local government landscape.

In addition to his role as Strategic Asset Manager for Argyll and Bute Council, Nick has occupied a number of policy development and advisory roles within different organisations, such as the Audit Scotland Advisory Group on Asset Management and the CoSLA Strategy Group on Asset Management.

Nick has also been heavily involved in the development of the Scottish Government’s hub Initiative; both as a member of the Joint Premises Project Board at the conceptual stage of the Initiative, through to his current role as a Board Member of the Northern hub Territory – a strategic collaboration of 18 public sector organisations across the North of Scotland.

In 2009 Argyll and Bute Council launched its “Third Sector Demonstration Project”. One of the key themes of this Project is the Council’s aim of developing a policy and process for supporting the Third Sector through sustainable asset transfer and capacity building. Nick is Lead officer on this aspect of the Project.
In his spare time Nick is also a member of the National Trust for Scotland’s Advisory Panel.

Andrew Robinson (CCLA Bank and member of Quirk Review)

Andrew Robinson is a director of CCLA Investment Management Limited. His other current appointments include being a trustee of the Community Development Foundation, the Lankelly Chase Foundation, the British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres, and London Funders. He is a member of the Advisory Group overseeing a Defra funding programme of support for Action for Communities in Rural England’s Rural Community Action Network and a Special Advisor to the Development Trusts Association.

Previously Andrew was the head of Community Development Banking for RBS and NatWest, Chairman of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association and chaired the steering group that led to the establishment of the Community Development Finance Association. He was also a founding trustee of the UK Social Enterprise Coaltion.

Andrew's first job in the UK was to establish the UK's first community development finance institution (CDFI) to lend money to community enterprises operating in the most disadvantaged communities. He was also a member of the government's review of the community ownership and management of assets, chaired by Barry Quirk CBE and the Fabian Society Commission on Child Poverty, chaired by Lord Victor Adebowale.

Prior to these roles he worked for the Royal Bank of Canada, a foundation and a health related charity. He was recognised MBE for services to social and community enterprise in 2003.

Jim McCormick (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

Dr Jim McCormick is an independent adviser and commentator on public policy matters. He was appointed Scotland Adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) in November 2007 and was previously Director of independent think-tank the Scottish Council Foundation (SCF) for five years. He is co-founder of a research partnership, McCormick-McDowell. Jim’s main professional interests include tackling poverty, schools reform and policies for older people. Relevant publications include Policies for Peace of Mind? (ippr, 2009) and Sustainable Working Lives (SCF, 2008).

He has led various exercises in public involvement, including Scotland’s first Consensus Conference on the theme of Future Energy Choices. He is Chair of the Scottish Government’s workstream on Learning in Custody, a member of First ScotRail’s Advisory Board and a Board member of Govanhill Community Development Trust. Before joining SCF, he worked at the London-based think tank ippr (Institute for Public Policy Research) and in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Raymond Young CBE FRIAS

Raymond Young is the chair of Architecture and Design Scotland, and a non-executive director of Historic Scotland. He was one of the founder members of ASSIST - the community architecture practice in Glasgow that pioneered both tenement rehabilitation and community based housing associations. He was Director-Scotland for the Housing Corporation; Director North, with responsibility for rural housing policy, and Director Research and Innovation with Scottish Homes.

He now runs a very part-time regeneration consultancy from a sustainable straw bale office in Perthshire. He is a Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University, and the Convener of the Rural Housing Service. He was a member of the UK Sustainable Development Commission 2000-2004

Andy Wightman

Andy Wightman is a freelance writer, researcher and analyst specialising in land reform, land tenure and landownership and a leading advocate of land reform in Scotland. He is the author of numerous publications including Who Owns Scotland (1996), Scotland: Land and Power (1999), and Community Land Rights: A Citizen’s Guide (2009).

He runs the www.whoownsscotland.org.uk project and is a Director of the Caledonia Centre for Social Development’s Land Programme. Current interests include research on burgh commons and other forms of common land, land restitution and community land rights. Catch up with his activities on the web at www.andywightman.com.