As UK City of Culture 2029 opens, new ‘UK Town of Culture’ competition – to shine a spotlight on towns – opens soon too

Posted on 28/11/2025 by IHBC

Towns are encouraged to apply for new UK Town of Culture competition opening in the coming weeks, with UK City of Culture 2029 also open for applications.

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UK Parliamentary Cttee. launches International Climate Policy Inquiry, ‘on UK climate policy and finance’, seeking evidence, to 7/01/2026

Posted on 28/11/2025 by IHBC

Ahead of COP 30, where host country Brazil’s Presidency has set a strategic goal to transition from ‘negotiation to implementation’, the Energy Security and Net Zero Parliamentary Committee has launched a call for evidence in a major new inquiry on UK climate policy and finance.

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IHBC features ‘Heritage from the Global doorstep’: European Heritage Excellence Day 2025 spotlights innovation, creativity and community engagement

Posted on 28/11/2025 by IHBC


The European Heritage Excellence Day 2025 took place on 12 October at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels as part of the European Cultural Heritage Summit 2025. During the event, the 30 winners of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards 2025 presented their inspiring projects and shared key learnings to some 300 participants, including renowned experts, advocates, researchers and volunteers, who travelled to Brussels from all corners of Europe.

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PAS UPDATES

Posted on 28/11/2025 by IHBC

Pathways to Planning – Applications open now

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Career conscious & in conservation? IHBC’s ‘Jobs etc.’ services spans disciplines, levels & sectors, linked by interdisciplinary conservation practice standards delivering public benefit

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

To connect employers’ needs and practitioners’ skills, the IHBC regularly updates our NewsBlog readers on the wide-ranging opportunities on the ‘IHBC Jobs etc.’ service, so sign up for free alerts and tell your boss or team how our low-cost service helps them and brings public benefits too!

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IHBC’s 2025 Parliamentary Briefing launches research-led ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation’… From Crafts in Crisis to Rubbish in Retrofit

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

Image Credits: S O’Reilly IHBC & F Newton IHBC

On 18 November the IHBC hosted the 2025 Westminster launch of its new ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation’, informed by cross-cutting research into challenges across the full landscape of IHBC’s heritage skills interests… ‘From Crafts in Crisis to Rubbish in Retrofit’.

Images:

  • The Earl of Devon, Parliamentary sponsor for the IHBC’s Briefing, introducing the background to the IHBC’s ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation’
  • Linsey Farnsworth MP for Amber Valley, offering a personal perspective on the importance and potential of Heritage Skills in Conservation
  • IHBC President Rebecca Thompson IHBC, Director of Property at St Paul’s Cathedral, launching the IHBC’s ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation’
  • Research report author Jonathan Taylor IHBC, introducing the new research commissioned by the IHBC
  • General View of the Briefing
  • IHBC Officers returning after a busy evening in Westminster and the House of Commons
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IHBC’s ‘Evaluation’ Signpost from Sheehan Quirke via Open Culture: ‘How did the world get so ugly?’

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

image for illustration: London Skyline by © User:Colin and Kim Hansen / Wikimedia Commons

Open Culture asks: ‘How Did The World Get So Ugly?: Then Versus Now’, offering Sheehan Quirke on video in response!

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IHBC features ‘Heritage from the (duplicate) doorstep’: Plans for first Iron Age broch ‘in 2000 years’ approved for Highlands

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

image for illustration: The Iron Age Mousa Broch by Iain Lees, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Planning permission has been granted for the first broch in 2000 years to be constructed in the Highlands, reports The National.

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IHBC features ‘Heritage from the (Lottery) doorstep’: Historic Birnbeck pier saved as surprise funding announced from NLHF

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

image for illustration: Birnbeck Pier by Oliver Mills, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The restoration of a historic pier has been saved just before councillors were to cancel the project thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, reports the BBC.

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‘Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security’ – with ‘nature as essential to sustaining growth and a healthy society’

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

A new strategy from Natural England – ‘Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security’, Natural England’s strategy – sets out how it will ‘move beyond protection to systemic, large-scale recovery of nature’.

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HE & ACE issue first parts of suite of guidance, templates and factsheets etc.

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

Arts Council England (ACE) and Historic England (HE) have launched online resources for their Cultural and Heritage Sector Decarbonisation Project Pilot, to ‘support cultural and heritage organisations responsible for historic buildings [to] better understand… decarbonisation plans.’

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Government’s Pride in Place: Strategy update

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

The Pride in Place Strategy will help build stronger communities, create thriving places and empower local people, argues Government UK.

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Winners of the Georgian Group Architectural Awards announced!

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

The Georgian Group Architectural Awards have included Beckford’s Tower and Gorhambury House among eight projects to win in scheme celebrating exemplary conservation of Georgian heritage.

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Joining the dots: A single EDI portal for the sector

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) blog by Rebecca Lovelace, Founder and Chief Dot-joiner Building People, Speaks to a single EDI portal for the sector

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IHBC features ‘Heritage from the Global doorstep’: Worker dies after partial collapse of medieval tower in Rome

Posted on 25/11/2025 by IHBC

A worker who was trapped after part of a medieval tower collapsed in the heart of Rome, has died, according to hospital officials, reports BBC News.

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IHBC’s 2025 Parliamentary Briefing launches research-led ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation’… From Crafts in Crisis to Rubbish in Retrofit

Posted on 21/11/2025 by IHBC

Image Credits: S O’Reilly IHBC & F Newton IHBC

On 18 November the IHBC hosted the 2025 Westminster launch of its new ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation’, informed by cross-cutting research into challenges across the full landscape of IHBC’s heritage skills interests… ‘From Crafts in Crisis to Rubbish in Retrofit’.

Images:

  • The Earl of Devon, Parliamentary sponsor for the IHBC’s Briefing, introducing the background to the IHBC’s ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation’
  • Linsey Farnsworth MP for Amber Valley, offering a personal perspective on the importance and potential of Heritage Skills in Conservation
  • IHBC President Rebecca Thompson IHBC, Director of Property at St Paul’s Cathedral, launching the IHBC’s ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation’
  • Research report author Jonathan Taylor IHBC, introducing the new research commissioned by the IHBC
  • General View of the Briefing
  • IHBC Officers returning after a busy evening in Westminster and the House of Commons
Continue reading →
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IHBC welcomes new joint CEOs at Historic England to post

Posted on 21/11/2025 by IHBC

Claudia Kenyatta CBE and Emma Squire CBE have taken up the role of Co-Chief Executives of Historic England, following the retirement of Duncan Wilson on 31 October 2025.

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IHBC’s ‘Research’ Signpost from the NT: Public First report on ‘Local history, local heritage and local pride, in Coventry and across the UK’

Posted on 21/11/2025 by IHBC

image for illustration: Coventry Cathedral by DeFacto, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The National Trust has issued a new Public First report: ‘There’s a lot of history here’: Local history, local heritage and local pride, in Coventry and across the UK’.

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IHBC features ‘Heritage from the doorstep’: Plans to turn three local villages into town to ‘help protect green belt’ backed by residents

Posted on 21/11/2025 by IHBC

A plan to merge three leafy local villages into a single town has been backed by residents in a bid to save swathes of countryside, reports Kenilworth Nub News.

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Parliamentary Committee: Nature not a ‘blocker’ to housing; needed for ‘resilient towns & neighbourhoods’, and calls for housebuilding target changes and reduced VAT (for retrofitting)

Posted on 21/11/2025 by IHBC

Nature is not a ‘blocker’ to delivering new housing, but rather a necessity for building resilient towns and neighbourhoods, MPs argue in a House of Commons committee report on ‘Environmental sustainability and housing growth’, with responses from government due in two months.

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Housebuilding around train stations will be given default ‘yes’, including in Green Belt, as: ‘Builders Speechless’

Posted on 21/11/2025 by IHBC

Government says that housebuilding near well-connected train stations will receive a default ‘yes’ in future if they meet certain rules, ensuring more homes are built.

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RTPI’s State of the Profession 2025 reports across UK: One in five planners expected to leave the profession within three years, with no clear plan to replace them

Posted on 21/11/2025 by IHBC

New findings from a survey of more than 2,500 planners by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) reveal that 20% of respondents in the United Kingdom expect to leave the profession within the next three years – with no clear pipeline to replace them.

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TCPA Blog: Review of Homes England’s Healthy Homes Standard: Our homes are not islands

Posted on 21/11/2025 by IHBC

New Government design requirements and guidance for the Healthy Homes Standard (HHS), to be used by Homes England etc. on under the Affordable Housing Programme, is the subject of a Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) blog.

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Public Practice: Recruitment & Skills Report 2025

Posted on 21/11/2025 by IHBC

Public practice: This is our fourth annual survey and the first time we are including results from across the UK.

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NCT’s National Churches Survey – giving every church a voice

Posted on 21/11/2025 by IHBC

The National Churches Trust ‘National Churches Survey: giving every church a voice’ report shows both the scale of what is at stake and the hope that continues to shine through.

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