We encourage communities to contact officials as early as possible so that they can consider fully the options available to them to purchase land and work up their proposals for the sustainable development of that land. In addition work in taking forward the Community Empowerment Action Plan includes a two year programme addressing awareness raising among councillors, local authority officers and community groups about the benefits of community asset ownership and asset transfers; identifying and disseminating lessons from effective practice, and providing targeted development support for selected community groups to enable them to take on transferred assets.