The Heritage Alliance (THA) has released its statements reacting to the recent summer budget announcements, highlighting the ongoing pressures on Local Planning Authority heritage and conservation services.
The Heritage Alliance (THA) writes:
The Chancellor confirmed in today’s Summer Budget that to achieve a surplus in 2019-20 the government will undertake around £37 billion of further consolidation measures. In Autumn 2015, the Government will set out plans to deliver the remaining £20 billion of fiscal consolidation.
In the run up to the Autumn Spending Review, The Heritage Alliance will be making the case, through every means possible, that planning, heritage protection and historic environment services, together with the capacity of communities to shape and care for their environment, are not singled out as a soft targets for further efficiencies given the huge benefits – economic, social, environmental and cultural – our heritage brings to the country.
Cutting still further the Grant in Aid to unprotected Departments, DCMS and CLG, will have serious impact on their service quality, capacity and business models. DCMS and CLG are the essential interface for Government to discharge its responsibility in protecting our world-class heritage and related services at international, national and local level.
The Heritage Alliance calls on government to focus on three urgent priorities as set out in The Heritage Alliance’s Manifesto:
- Develop Local Authority capacity and specialist advice
- Secure stable funding for Historic England
- Create a positive tax regime for independently owned heritage
Specialist expertise (Conservation Officers and Archaeological Advisers) at Local Authority level has dropped by 32% since 2006 with other critical jobs that include responsibilities for maintaining or delivering heritage services now being lost. New models, usually taking the form of collaborative working between local authorities, will be a norm if heritage receives no worse than a fair share of the cuts expected in local authorities.
In reviewing how they deliver heritage protection and services, we urge Local Authorities to keep in mind:
- If Local Authorities cut heritage more than other services there will be a breakdown in effective heritage protection. The result will be inappropriate development of historic buildings, unauthorised damage and possibly increased legal liabilities.
- Economic recovery needs to be facilitated, not frustrated, by over-stretched officers or the failure of a local authority to provide adequate planning information and advice.
- The National Planning Policy Framework recognises the need for expert advice and requires local planning authorities to maintain or have access to a Historic Environment Record [NPPF para.169].
- Professional planning advice and a well-maintained HER are critical for local economic growth and development, by allowing commercial firms to meet statutory requirements more promptly, for specialists to provide an early indication of the impact on heritage assets, and help to prevent wasted applications, unmanaged risk (and compensation), and to minimise unplanned costs and delays to development.
- The long term consequence of such degradation will also be felt in reduced tourism returns both to attractions and in areas where the heritage forms the backdrop for visiting; in reduced investment and confidence in the area; and in a poorer quality of life for residents and workers.
Cuts in DCMS should not destabilise the new English Heritage model so recently established by the Government on 1 April 2015. ‘Historic England’ was set up with an explicit guarantee from the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport that no reduction would be made to its allocated budget of £69.3m for 2015-6 ‘whatever happens more widely’ [9.10.14].
We urge DCMS to honour this pledge now and over the next five years:
- The capacity to generate significant income through the properties in care has passed to the English Heritage charity, making Historic England much more vulnerable to reductions in Grant in Aid.
- Unless Grant in Aid support for Historic England is maintained at or above the current level it will not be possible for Historic England to provide Local Authorities with the advice and expertise they need to maintain heritage protection services or the essential advice to owners of nationally important heritage.
- DCMS funding to Historic England is a commitment to the nation’s heritage for public benefit as well as investment with significant multiplier effects. This spend guarantees that a far greater impact is made by Historic England working through others and in partnership to achieve its aims. Its business model of engagement with outside people and stakeholders makes it the lynchpin for the heritage sector.
The unintended consequences of national tax changes on the management of historic assets – the vast majority of which are in private and charitable ownership – can threaten the financial viability and ultimately their very survival.
We call on Government to:
- Review the implications of tax changes for heritage enterprises
- To simplify the arrangements for historic house businesses to put heritage-based businesses on a fairer footing with their competitors to enable them to survive and continue to provide public benefit.
- To review the impact of 20% VAT on repairs, maintenance and alterations to listed buildings and to introduce compensation, similar to the Listed Places of Worship Grant scheme, for secular listed buildings.
