The IHBC has been made aware of uncertainties over the status – or even absence – of local authority Heritage and Historic Environment (HE) strategies as a specific component of Local Plans, and the place of such strategies in Local Plan Inquiries, particularly with regard to the provisions of Section 126 of England’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), and now urgently seeks input and updates from members and colleagues.
IHBC’s Research Coordinator Bob Kindred sets the scene: ‘The NPPF recommends that Local Plans should set out a positive strategy for the conservation and enjoyment of the historic environment including dealing with heritage at risk.’
‘However while Local Plans invariably include some content on protection of the historic environment, few authorities appear to have adopted a specific heritage strategy including resolution of heritage at risk issues.’
‘The Institute is interested in determining:
- Whether local authorities have produced stand-alone heritage strategies and if so, which ones
- Whether and why these were initiated outside the local plan framework; and
- What specific objectives, outcomes and timescales did these entail, in theory and or practice.’
The NPPF states, in paragraph 126:
‘Local planning authorities should set out in their Local Plan a positive strategy for the conservation and enjoyment of the historic environment,29 including heritage assets most at risk through neglect, decay or other threats. In doing so, they should recognise that heritage assets are an irreplaceable resource and conserve them in a manner appropriate to their significance. In developing this strategy, local planning authorities should take into account:
- the desirability of sustaining and enhancing the significance of heritage assets and putting them to viable uses consistent with their conservation;
- the wider social, cultural, economic and environmental benefits that conservation of the historic environment can bring;
- the desirability of new development making a positive contribution to local character and distinctiveness; and
- opportunities to draw on the contribution made by the historic environment to the character of a place.’
IHBC members are asked to respond to IHBC’s research coordinator Bob Kindred at research@ihbc.org.uk regarding strategies not embedded in Local Plans – preferably with a web-link to a relevant document or as a pdf attachment.
Read IHBC NewsBlogs covering the NPPF
