Heritage Unlocked - Flipbook - Page 21
Policy in practice: advocating for reuse
Charles Smith
‘Heritage matters.
It brings beauty to
our streets. It tells
the stories of the
past’
Historic England (HE) is the
government’s advisor for the historic
environment, the arm’s length body that
advises the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport. A key aspect of its
remit is the protection of the historic
environment through the listing system
and listing process, and it funds heritage
and conducts research.
It also engages with communities,
encouraging people to look at what’s
around them and learning about the
places where they live. Over the course
of a four year long High Street Heritage
Action Zone programme, HE
distributed £10 million across 67
different locales to revitalise town
centres while staging a well-received
cultural programme.
HE also provides advice on the
historic environment through a
publications programme. Last year it
released guidance on adapting historic
buildings for energy and carbon
efficiency, to help architects devise
interventions that do not impair the
significance of historic buildings, while
improving energy performance. And it
advises through the planning process.
For example, Cambridge’s Old Divinity
School, part of St John’s College, where
HE was engaged, has been successfully
remodelled as a venue for conferences,
lectures and functions.
Heritage matters. It brings beauty to
our streets. It tells the stories of the past.
It brings communities together. It
provides spaces where people live, work
and visit. It also brings value to the
economy, to the environment and the
society at large.
But how do we ensure that its
economic value is understood and
recognised? To address this, HE has
been engaged in developing the Culture,
Policy in practice: advocating for reuse
Heritage and Capital Programme with
the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport and the Arts and Humanities
Research Council. The aim is to create a
publicly available set of statistics and
guidance to advocate for the value of
heritage in decision making. This is
particularly important when making
the case for spending taxpayers’ money
but is also important in assessing the
public benefit of private investment.
The economic impact of heritage can
be quantified through real-life
examples. Resembling an Italian piazza
dropped into the Pennines, the Piece
Hall in Halifax is possibly Yorkshire’s
second most architecturally significant
building after York Minster. Opened in
1779 for the exchange of pieces of cloth, it
languished during the 20th century, but
with public investment over the past
decade or so, it has been transformed
into a dramatic event space. We also
know that for every pound spent each
year on operating the Piece Hall, it
contributes at least £5.30 to the local
retail economy, boosting it by around
£4.5 million every year
Other key aspects involve quantifying
the ‘intangible’ values of wellbeing and
place. HE was able to estimate that
cultural heritage adds, on average, the
equivalent of £515 annually to each
person’s wellbeing across England. And
it has undertaken research to quantify
how local residents actually value the
preservation of local heritage sites and
what they would be prepared to pay to
keep them in good condition.
Finding the key to unlock the value of
heritage requires discussion and
thought. But it can be done, particularly
through collaborative engagement. And
in some cases, through bold thinking. In
all cases, the rewards are significant.
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