The Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) has joined with the UK Association of Preservation Trusts (UKAPT) to welcome the launch by English Heritage of its tenth ‘Heritage Counts’ with a special commendation for its renewed profile of the work of Build Preservation Trusts (BPTs).
Bob Kindred, IHBC committee vice chair, and James Moir, Director of UKAPT, said: ‘For the first time English Heritage has published data on the performance of BPTs, recognising the contribution BPTs in England make to the resilience of the historic environment. The assessment is based on membership of APT – another achievement as it recognises the importance of the movement overall and the need to have representation at a UK level.’
‘This can be a benchmark for all subsequent reports, so let’s use it as an encouragement to move ahead with more projects and also persuade Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to produce the same sort of data.’
‘This is also why UKAPT’s mapping of all Trusts is such an important and powerful tool for demonstrating the range and diversity of projects across the UK. If you haven’t registered, please do get in touch with Alanna Ivin at alanna.ivin@pobox.com’
For the UKAPT’s mapping see: www.ukapt.org.uk
English Heritage writes of the launch of Heritage Counts:
Visitor numbers and participation in heritage are higher than ever before. The sector is adapting, using networks, partnerships and social media – but is still facing a challenging environment in terms of funding and ongoing changes to the planning system.
As Heritage Counts reaches its 10th year of findings, research shows that in 2011/12, almost three quarters of adults visited the historic environment, the highest level since official statistics on this were first collected in 2005/06. Visits to historic attractions have increased by 28% over the past 10 years, not only reflecting the public’s appetite for heritage, but providing the chance for the sector to capitalise on its popularity.
This increase in historic environment participation has been seen across a range of groups, for example since 2005/06, black and ethnic minority participation has increased by 21% and participation by lower socio-economic groups has increased by 11%.
Social media has had a big effect over the past 10 years. In 2002, when Heritage Counts was first published, social media was almost unheard of. Now, it is allowing organisations to rapidly engage with people on a scale never seen before. The National Trust and English Heritage have 107,187 and 48,758 Twitter followers respectively, while Heritage Open Days has built a strong network of thousands of volunteers and organisers through its blog and social media efforts.
These changes have been in the context of a difficult economic environment in which the effects of the financial crisis are still being felt across the country, affecting both private individuals and groups that care for heritage. There has been a reduction in public funding which has seen the numbers of historic environment staff in local authorities fall by 10% and English Heritage’s grant in aid fall by 15% in real terms over the past 10 years. The planning structures that protect heritage are also changing through the National Planning Policy Framework and localism agendas, creating challenges and opportunities for the sector.
In these changing times, Heritage Counts in 2012 also looks at the resilience in the sector and explores how it can adapt and flourish. The sector is branching into new activities and finding innovative ways to use the historic environment. Organisations that work across the sector are also helping heritage to remain resilient. The Heritage Alliance is doing a lot to encourage philanthropy, benefiting the whole sector, and the Heritage Lottery Fund is doing much to support capacity and build endowments.
For UKAPT see: www.ukapt.org.uk
For the national and regional reports, as well as Excel spreadsheets for some of the statistics, and previous years reports, see the Heritage Counts site at: hc.english-heritage.org.uk
English Heritage News: LINK
