On 14 May IHBC’s Sarah Homer (IHBC Services and Support Executive Officer) and Rebecca Whewell (IHBC Branch Consultant), and South West Branch Chair Charlotte Bowles-Lewis hosted our stand at ‘Surveyor Live 26’, organised by the Residential Property Surveyors Association (RPSA) to bringing together 350 residential surveyors and exhibitors in Swindon, the largest event of its type.
IHBC’s latest Council received impressively positive feedback, as we advanced the 3rd of our Parliamentary ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation…’, to ‘Investigate… heritage management…’ – there focussed on helping conservation services in the UK’s local government, with more details & updates to come.
Continue reading
As the IHBC’s looks ahead to our 2026 Annual School in Newcastle in June, we are delighted to announce a series of free webinars, all led by expert speakers and linked to the School’s theme, ‘Adaptive Reuse’, an excellent opportunity to boost your heritage CPD, and for free.
Continue readingIHBC’s members and prospective members are asked to feed back on the summary review of our Corporate Plan for 2020-25 – ‘CP25’ – presented at our September Council, to help inform plans for our Corporate Plan for 2026-30 (CP30), with initial responses encouraged by 28 February 2026.
Continue reading
image for illustration: Hansueli Krapf CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Scotland’s The Engine Shed makes the case on ‘Why building conservation is important for the future’.
Continue readingPolicies that reduce how much cities demolish and build new may be the single most powerful action local governments can take to reverse biodiversity loss globally, according to a new report by International Union for Conservation of nature and natural Resources (IUCN).
Continue readingIHBC’s heritage business register HESPR – our Historic Environment Service Providers Recognition quality assurance scheme for heritage services – emails members weekly ‘News and Tender Alerts’, and this week features Designing Buildings (DB) on Spelling it out.
JOIN HESPR, FROM £145PA (TO 2 EMPLOYEES)
DB features IHBC’s Context on: ‘Spelling it out: From medieval scribes to modern word art’.
Join IHBC’s 2026 Virtual School online on 19 June, from only £35+VAT
REMEMBER: IHBC rates for RTPI members (see more HERE)
IHBC Pre-School CPD Webinars: UPDATE
The RTPI is a friend of the School
If you have any queries please contact Angharad Hart, Education & Outreach Executive Officer at a.hart@ihbc.org.uk
For HESPR offer code and details, just contact your company’s HESPR Designated Service Adviser, as listed on your company’s HESPR page, or email IHBC at contact@ihbc.org.uk.
See more HERE, on IHBC’s Conservation Wiki and ion Context’s archive HERE
See more on Context
For a free promotion of your tendering opportunities and work needs to the IHBC’s HESPR members, please send details and links to Joanna at contact@ihbc.org.uk, as soon as possible.
Tenders can also be advertised for a fee with IHBC Jobs etc, including a targeted email to 2500+ recipients as well as full coverage on our NewsBlog alerts and social platforms (membership and followers c.25,000) and websites with c. 250,000 visits a month. Contact Joanna at contact@ihbc.org.uk
image for illustration: The site of the first Hampden Park by Thomas Nugent, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Remains of the pavilion at site of one of the world’s earliest purpose-built football grounds is added to list of nationally important sites by HES
Continue reading
image for illustration: Mapledurham Watermill By Chris Wood, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
How musicians from the Fab Four to The Streets have harnessed the power of historic places in their album art
Continue readingThe Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has announced its refreshed Construct Zero programme and updated priorities, with Business Champion programme applications invited too.
Continue readingHeritage Network recruits, trains, and matches volunteer Digital Heroes with our members, with self-guided training materials also available for Heroes.
Continue readingBringing together data and insights from more than 260 sites, ‘A Seat at the Table: Embedding Commercial Thinking in the Cultural Sector’ is a new report from the arts, heritage and cultural sector charity and trade body, the Association for Cultural Enterprises (ACE), that looks at the factors driving financial resilience across the sector.
Continue reading
image for illustration: Just a Prairie Boy from Calgary, AB, Canada, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
A new report, ‘A Path Forward for the Canadian Register of Historic Places,’ finds that the Canadian Register of Historic Places (CRHP) remains a highly valued national public resource, relied on by a wide range of users for research, planning, education, tourism, and development decisions.
Continue reading
The IHBC has published its CPD Circular Guide to the 2026 School, on ‘Adaptive Reuse’, with our Virtual School on 19 June broadcast from Newcastle, offering a huge variety of accessible CPD pitched to all disciplines and levels of interest in places, heritage, conservation and change.
Continue readingIHBC’s latest Council received impressively positive feedback, as we advanced the 3rd of our Parliamentary ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation…’, to ‘Investigate… heritage management…’ – there focussed on helping conservation services in the UK’s local government, with more details & updates to come.
IHBC Director Seán O’Reilly said: ‘As noted earlier, we’re really delighted with how enthusiastically the programme was received – with nearly 20% of delegates offering 10/10 in our quick online Zoom survey, and with lots of useful comments too.’
‘We said we’d update readers further as we get more feedback – including from those not able to attend, and here below is more!’
‘For now it is clear that we are laying strong foundations for the next stage in our Parliamentary-linked advocacy on behalf of the hard-pressed regulators in conservation-related services, as outlined HERE.’
IHBC’s Council Feedback table as it happens!
| Mark out of 10 | Comments, where made |
| 10 | Good amount of updates and interesting information. Timing wise it would be very helpful to avoid school holidays with these but I appreciate there seem to be many of those! |
| 10 | Excellent variety of speakers kept to time kindly |
| 10 | |
| 10 | |
| 10 | Well organised and chaired. Very interesting speakers. Thank you |
| 10 | useful discussion despite me not working in the public sector, it is still interesting to hear real life experiences and information on the conservation officer role and experience |
| 10 | |
| 10 | Well presented and organised. |
| 10 | Very useful and informative discussions on current topics and issues |
| 10 | Very well organised and interesting topics |
| 10 | |
| 10 | Engaged and engaging, relevant and involving. |
| 10 | |
| 10 | Speakers on point and interesting, meeting ran smoothly and kept in good time. Really appreciated the updates and research findings. |
| 10 | Excellent discussions. Enjoyed the PechaKutcha format and benefitted from the quick analyses. Always good to hear Bobs assessment also. |
| 10 | |
| 10 | |
| 10 | |
| 10 | |
| 9 | found the discussion and points raised generally very informative an great to hear what is happening across the profession, very thought provoking. |
| 9 | |
| 9 | |
| 9 | |
| 9 | |
| 9 | |
| 9 | Great event, with a good range of speakers. Although it was good to have some regional perspectives, we need to forge some more international links. |
| 9 | Well run – to time. Very interesting subject |
| 9 | |
| 9 | |
| 8 | Very useful session on COGs |
| 8 | |
| 8 | One of the issues I raised in the Chat was answered; I will provide a link to Civic Voice; I would appreciate information on IHBC’s reaction to the Don’t Waste Buildings campaign. |
| 8 | Not as good as being in the room……. |
| 8 | Interesting! |
| 8 | Useful to cover the issues faced by Local Authority Conservation Officers, and to see the comments in the chat. In person discussions on this issue would be useful at future events eg the Annual Conference. |
| 7 | |
| 7 | meeting content very good . Had difficulty, logging in. Registered in Feb when first announced thought this was acknowledged but had to re register just before meeting as turned out all e mails where reminders and not a link . Technical issue maybe ? regards David Blackburn |
| 7 | Great to have the short presentations. It’s difficult to get time to read all the links in the agenda so short snappy presentations on some of the key items (including for example the charter, to summarise key headings) is/would be really useful. |
| 6 | Good contributions, but it doesn’t really feel like there’s a lot of opportunity for members to engage in the institute’s governance or policy directions. |
| 1 | Not that much relevant since I am not a conservation officer |
IHBC’s Councils are live events open exclusively to IHBC members
Council minutes, with updates, are Council’s formal record
For Council on 8 April 2026, a film and two papers submitted:
Chris Connelley in conversation with Joanna Saady: ‘Conservation in conversations: ‘Before the pre-App – an alternative approach in regulation’
Adam Dyer: ‘Green upgrades for London’s heritage homes’
Serena Cardozo: ‘From private sector architect to local authority conservation officer, via Public Practice’
Links to these papers are included in the final invitation to all members from IHBC’s President.
If you are a member and have not received the invitation & links to content, email Joanna Theobald at contact@ihbc.org.ukfor a re-send
Council feedback and more may be submitted online HERE
Council is supported by IHBC’s CREATIVE Conservation Fund
See more updates HERE.
The IHBC will soon launch a call to register ‘Interest’ in our new network – ‘Leaders in Learning for Practice’ – aimed at service leads in built and historic environment conservation-led learning programmes and courses etc., with resources allocated, advocacy a priority, and plans to be shaped by Network members.
Continue reading
IHBC’s 2026 Day School, broadcasting from Newcastle on 19 June, boasts The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) as our School ‘Friend’, offering reduced Virtual School rates to RTPI members as delegates while delegates will hear from former RTPI President Timothy David Crawshaw as he responds to a busy day of IHBC CPD.
Continue readingAs the IHBC’s looks ahead to our 2026 Annual School in Newcastle in June, we are delighted to announce a series of free webinars, all led by expert speakers and linked to the School’s theme, ‘Adaptive Reuse’, an excellent opportunity to boost your heritage CPD, and for free.
Continue readingA new survey – by Maryam Forghaniallahabadi – seeks input to inform how heritage-related knowledge, traditional building skills, and historic building materials are currently included within construction-related courses in Further Education and Higher Education institutions across Scotland.
Continue readingUNESCO’s latest report highlights the extraordinary contribution of its sites for both people and nature.
Continue readingThe IHBC’s heritage business register HESPR – our Historic Environment Service Providers Recognition quality assurance service – sends members exclusive ‘News and Tender Alerts’, with the Director’s tender taster for NewsBlog readers this week a call from a Heritage Trust for a conservation accredited architect etc. for a feasibility study linked to a listed house, to £28K+.
Continue reading
image for illustration:Kev747 CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) has confirmed that Hall’s Croft, the Grade I listed home of Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna and her husband Dr John Hall, has been placed on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register
Continue readingThe Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has launched its ‘On the Edge’ campaign, to be showcased in the garden of the same name at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, celebrating fragile, often-forgotten countryside on the edges of England’s towns and cities – and calling for urgent government action to protect it.
Continue readingThe fourth Public Practice annual survey helps understand year-on-year trends and changes, to better understand the skills gap and the impact that the lack of resources is having on officers and their teams across each country.
Continue reading
