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Community Right to Challenge

Communities can express an interest to run local council services under Community Right to Challenge scheme.

Who can apply?

  • Voluntary and community bodies
  • Organisations set up for solely charitable purposes
  • Parish councils
  • Two or more employees of the council

There may be ways in which we can help you achieve what you want without having to submit an Expression of Interest.

We strongly encourage any organisation who wishes to submit a Community Right to Challenge expression of interest to engage in discussions with us before applying by contacting communities@southampton.gov.uk

Advice and guidance for organisations considering making an expression of interest:

Submit a Community Right to Challenge Expression of Interest and return it by email to communities@southampton.gov.uk

Community Right to Challenge Expression of Interest

It takes time to fully consider your expression of interest application to run a council service under Community Right to Challenge and to make a decision.

What happens next?

We will send you a timetable within 30 days, that explains how your Expression of Interest will be considered.

As a guide, the timescale for making a decision on your Expression of Interest is between 6 and 26 weeks.

If the service is already contracted out, we will delay consideration of your Expression of Interest until we start to plan what will happen when the current contract ends.

Notification of decision

If your Expression of Interest is rejected, the reasons for this decision will be published within 10 working days.

Procurement process

  • If your Expression of Interest is accepted, a procurement process will start, where you can make a formal bid to run the service
  • The procurement process will normally start no sooner than 8 weeks and no later than 26 weeks after acceptance of your Expression of Interest dependent on the nature, scale and complexity of the service to which your Expression of Interest relates
  • During the procurement process, other organisations will also have the chance to bid to run the service
  • The supply portal contains further information on how the council's procurement process works