The heritage and built environment position within the government’s recent ‘Spending Review’ has been under consideration, and in this NewsBlog we present a summary selection of reactions:
The Heritage Alliance writes:
The Treasury’s acknowledgement that the UK is ‘brilliant at culture’ is very welcome together with the Chancellor’s illustration of the power of grants to lever in investment. This supports his previous sentence that a cut in the budget of such a small Department like DCMS is a false economy. DCMS points out that the cut of 20% is in the administration budget while the overall cut to the DCMS resource budget is 5%, a good result in the context of the Spending Review.
Although arts, museums and sport are singled out for additional support, there was, however, little mention of heritage although the new £40 million Discover England Fund to boost tourism across England is a very positive investment together with the £1m for Hull’s UK City of Culture 2017 and to prepare for the next UK City of Culture. Other welcome points were that Historic England and the Churches Conservation Trust will be given the same operational and financial freedoms as national museums to help these bodies to move towards greater financial self reliance and sustainability. The Government confirms its support to the new English Heritage charity. In DEFRA’s budget, the protection of funding for Areas of Outstanding National Beauty and National Parks is also good news.
Other measures in the Spending Review impinge on the condition of our heritage assets, notably the pressure on Local Authorities to reduce their property portfolios. The Spending Review will allow Local Authorities to retain 100% of receipts from sales to be used for improving local services. If this results in the rapid sale of town halls, libraries and other civic buildings, the Heritage Alliance will be working to ensure that disposal policies take account of the community value of these assets to avoid these buildings, many of them historic landmark buildings on the high street, being simply sold to the highest bidder and ending up empty or on the Heritage at Risk register. If the receipts were ploughed back into under-resourced historic environment services the overall principle would be more acceptable. Similar conditions should apply when central government departments release £4.5 billion worth of surplus land and property assets.
We were surprised that no further measures were made to boost philanthropic giving heritage but further information may lie in the promise of ‘tax reliefs for museums’.
Historic England writes:
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has today confirmed it will receive a 5% real terms cut to its funding. The Secretary of State has said this is an excellent settlement in the context of the Spending Review. Historic England, an Arm’s Length Body of DCMS, will receive a cut of approximately £2.2m to its baseline by 2020, representing approximately 10% in real terms over the four financial years from 2016/17.
Responding to this news, Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said: The government has recognised the significance of Historic England’s role in caring for our spectacular historic environment, and we are grateful for this. We fully appreciate that we have been given some protection in comparison to many other public sector bodies. We can’t afford to lose the momentum that the launch of Historic England has created. A 10% cut is not an insignificant challenge, and other aspects of today’s news will create further challenges for us as we care for the historic environment during a time of change. But public recognition and support for our mission is high, and we intend to press on with vital initiatives to increase our impact.
This settlement will enable us to support the English Heritage Trust during its first years of operation, while it becomes financially self-sufficient. This is very welcome news. We will also ensure, for the future, that the immense value of heritage is fully recognised in the national growth and renewal agenda. With our many partners and supporters, we will ensure that the buildings and places we all care about play their part in England’s future.’
Planning Portal writes:
Planning policy will also be amended to support small sites. Small and medium-sized builder activity will be helped by the extension of the £1bn Builders’ Finance Fund to 2020-21, and by the halving of the length of the planning guarantee for minor developments.
A sum of £2.3bn is being made available in loans to help regenerate large council estates and invest in infrastructure needed for major housing developments. The Government has committed to £310m to deliver the first new garden city in nearly 100 years, at Ebbsfleet in Kent.
Read more from the Heritage Alliance, Historic England and Planning Portal
Additional summaries are provided as follows:
- Designing Buildings Wiki on the proposed apprenticeship levy
- DCMS settlement at the Spending Review 2015
