Leading organisations behind the drive to preserve and maintain our built heritage met in Westminster today (31st March) under the auspices of Sir Patrick Cormack’s, All Party Parliamentary Arts & Heritage Group, to launch a shared commitment to promote the highest possible standards and best practice within our built heritage workforce. Developed by ConstructionSkills, English Heritage and the National Heritage Training Group in consultation with the Arts & Heritage Group, the memorandum provides a common understanding to strengthen and build upon the existing commitments of the partners within this field.
There are more than 5 million pre-1919 buildings and structures in England, accounting for approximately 20% of the total building stock. This represents a significant part of the built environment generating some £4.7 billion spend on conservation, repair and maintenance per year, but it is a sector facing severe skills shortages. The latest NHTG Traditional Building Craft Skills report launched last year found that as many as two thirds of the built heritage workforce do not have the right skills or materials to undertake the work. Earlier this year a new CSCS Heritage Skills Card was launched, which demonstrates that workers have the skills and training they need to work safely on historic buildings. It is hoped that this will have a major role to play in qualifying the workforce and supporting the commitments as set out in the memorandum.
The signatories would like to see the principles set out in the memorandum applied by all clients, property managers, planners, contractors, craftspeople and professionals working in and on England’s built heritage.
The overarching areas of agreement in the memorandum are:
•A commitment to the highest possible standards
•A fully qualified and skilled built heritage workforce
•Improved understanding of traditional building materials and appropriate repair and maintenance techniques
•Promoting the value of maintaining the built heritage within the climate change, sustainability, energy efficiency and regeneration agendas.
Sir Michael Latham, Chair of ConstructionSkills said; “The memorandum is a first step. We all hope by taking the lead in creating this memorandum we send out a message to the industry at large that our built heritage sector must not be taken for granted. Further to this if we are to maintain it for future generations there needs to be common areas of agreement which are championed from the highest levels to all of industry.”
Sir Patrick Cormack, Chairman of the All-Party Arts and Heritage Group, said: “The survival of the crafts is essential if we are to maintain our built heritage. Everyone who cares about historic buildings should care equally about the crafts and the people upon whose skill and dedication we depend. I believe that this memorandum will help reinforce not only the need for the crafts but also the strength of Parliamentary support for them.”
Mike Moody, Chairman of the National Heritage Training Group and Managing Director of Classic Masonry Ltd said, “As an employer in this sector, I know too well the value and importance of retaining a skilled workforce. This is essential if we are to maintain the highest possible standards of workmanship, as well as remaining commercially successful. The work of the NHTG has already helped reduce the skills shortage, but we now hope to embed the best practice we have championed by promoting this shared agreement more widely throughout the construction industry.”
Dr Simon Thurley, Chief Executive, English Heritage, said: “Skilled craftspeople are the pillars of our heritage. Without them our treasured historic buildings will literally crumble. This memorandum will ensure that the need to train more craftspeople and to support existing ones will be top of the agenda in the construction industry and across various sectors, including Parliament.”
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For more information contact Andrew Mabey on 0300 456 5407
