Sevenoaks council officers are recommending Cabinet approve handing the Stag arts centre to the town council for £650,000, or granting a 30-year lease. A late commercial bid and local government reorganisation complicate the decision on 16 June.

Sevenoaks District Council officers are recommending that Cabinet approve transferring the Stag Community Arts Centre to Sevenoaks Town Council for £650,000, the next step in a long-running effort to secure the town’s main theatre and cinema under local control. Cabinet meets on Tuesday 16 June 2026, with a final decision reserved for Full Council on 14 July. (Sevenoaks District Council, Community Asset Transfer Application for the Stag Community Arts Centre, Cabinet 16 June 2026)

What officers are recommending

The report sets out three routes, in order of preference. The first is to approve the community asset transfer of the Stag to the town council for £650,000, based on its “Existing Use Value as a community arts centre and theatre,” with legal safeguards including asset locks and overage provisions so the building cannot simply be sold on at a profit. The second, if the town council does not want to buy, is a new 30-year lease with the district council keeping the freehold. The third is a fallback: if no agreement can be reached, the Stag and its existing lease would “automatically transfer to the Council’s successor in title,” the new unitary authority being created under local government reorganisation. (Sevenoaks District Council, Community Asset Transfer Application for the Stag Community Arts Centre, Cabinet 16 June 2026)

The £650,000 figure is the lowest of three valuations the council obtained from agents Colliers. They put the building’s restricted existing use value, tied to community and cultural use, at £650,000; its existing use value at £1.0 million; and its alternative use value, if it could be used for something else, at £1.5 million. Selling below the unrestricted market value is allowed where there is a clear community benefit, but the council has to justify it under Section 123 of the Local Government Act 1972 and the General Disposal Consent, which is why the asset locks and use restrictions matter. (Sevenoaks District Council, Community Asset Transfer Application for the Stag Community Arts Centre, Cabinet 16 June 2026)

A late commercial bid

The report discloses a complication. While officers were finalising their assessment, a third-party commercial operator expressed interest in acquiring the Stag. The council says it has “no intention of placing the Stag on the open market,” but, because the building was registered as an Asset of Community Value in 2014 and again in 2021, it has a legal duty to consider best value before disposing of it. Officers also note that the same operator had previously contacted the Stag directly, and that this was not disclosed in the town council’s business case. (Sevenoaks District Council, Community Asset Transfer Application for the Stag Community Arts Centre, Cabinet 16 June 2026)

This is not the council’s first attempt to settle the Stag’s future. In September 2025, officers recommended transferring it on a 100-year lease, but Cabinet rejected that after members at the Finance and Investment Advisory Committee argued the building should change hands on a freehold basis. Cabinet asked for fresh valuation advice and the external auditor’s view, and the report now before councillors is the result. (Sevenoaks District Council, Community Asset Transfer Application for the Stag Community Arts Centre, Cabinet 16 June 2026)

Part of a wider handover

The Stag transfer is one of many. The council adopted a Disposals Policy with a formal community asset transfer mechanism in April 2025, letting it pass land and buildings to town and parish councils where there is a sound business case. Since then it has received 24 such applications and approved 16, plus one asset for disposal. The looming reorganisation of Kent’s councils into new unitary authorities is part of why the work is being pushed through now: the report repeatedly weighs decisions against what they mean for the “successor” council. (Sevenoaks District Council, Community Asset Transfer Application for the Stag Community Arts Centre, Cabinet 16 June 2026)

What it means for residents

For people who use the Stag, its theatre, cinema, screenings and community events, the practical effect of a transfer would be a change of landlord rather than a change of programme. The point of the community asset transfer is to keep the building in local hands, with use restrictions designed to stop it being turned into something else. The town council would take on running and maintaining it, and the report says it has a track record of managing community assets.

What Cabinet decides on 16 June is a recommendation; the binding vote sits with Full Council on 14 July, and any sale or lease still has to be finalised on agreed legal terms. If the town council and district council cannot agree, the reorganisation fallback means the Stag would pass to the new unitary authority rather than be sold off.

You can read the full report, including the valuation advice and the legal safeguards, on the council’s meeting system. We set out the original offer, the £650,000 buyout and the 30-year lease, in our earlier report on the Stag’s future, and the Stag features in our guide to things to do in Sevenoaks.

Sources

Image: The Stag Theatre, Sevenoaks. Photo by N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.