The National Heritage Protection Plan (NHPP), put simply, will be the national framework for bringing together work by English Heritage (EH) and other partners within the sector to protect the historic environment. It will allow us to re-align and apply the full range of our expertise and resources towards protection activities carried out directly by EH or towards supporting others in their protection of what is valued and significant.
We believe we have the particular skills and capacity to make a substantive difference, by using our strengths and resources to complement those of other key bodies, particularly those on the front-line of statutory systems. EH hopes to encourage a new culture of partnership working in the historic environment, and the NHPP could be a means to pioneer and roll this out, while maximising protection. This culture could take form in shared objectives, aligned activities and, where possible, pooling of resources to achieve more in combination than the sum of the separate parts.
Building on the principle at the heart of PPS5, the Plan is focused on understanding and articulating the significance of the historic environment, as the key to its informed and effective protection and management. Direct protection and management carried out by EH includes our role in defining significance for listing, scheduling and other designation regimes, statutory casework, grant aid, or the management and maintenance of properties. Protection work by others, particularly the key, front line work of local authorities, which can similarly be supported, includes strategic and local planning, local designation regimes, heritage and planning casework, management plans and partnerships, and the maintenance and development of Historic Environment Records. In addition we will be able to identify and provide understanding of areas where the state of knowledge is insufficient, and of wider trends and themes, enabling risk mapping, technical advice, guidance and advocacy to support protection work. The Plan will identify an integrated and holistic suite of activities, which we hope will enable joined-up and co-ordinated work across the sector in a way that has not been done before.
We are aware, of course, of the magnitude of what needs to be done to protect a historic environment that is under threat from many directions, not least in the face of the budgetary strains for all of us caused by the CSR settlement. We simply won’t be able to do everything that could be done. This means that whatever we do will have to be firmly prioritised to ensure that our resources are sharply focused to meet the most urgent needs first. We believe that the best way to do this is to identify the threats that face assets, asset types, landscapes, areas or sites, to understand better the way that they act on the historic environment, and to prioritise our activities accordingly, ensuring that we deal with the most threatened first. The Plan should ensure that where possible assets or their significance are not irretrievably lost, while at the same time providing early warning to address or mitigate threats where possible, before loss becomes imminent.
Opportunities for positive or pro-active measures have also been a factor in prioritising, to ensure that actions can be taken which will forestall or negate threat in the medium to long term, and that chances to promote the enjoyment, valuing of, or caring for the historic environment are not overlooked.
This approach requires effective, early consultation and continuing engagement to confirm that the Plan represents the will of the historic environment sector, and that our activities under the Plan incorporate the intelligence of all partners, and support wider objectives, owned and shared as far as possible by the sector. We need to establish also the right mechanisms and lines of communication to ensure that the priorities of individual partners can be identified and fed into the Plan in a timely and appropriate manner.
A key characteristic of the Plan will be that it is constantly developing. Priorities that we do not progress straight away will not be forgotten. As we move forward we will monitor progress and completion and review resource and capacity. Where these allow, and through a consultative review process, we will refresh the Plan to take on new challenges and widen the net of protection.
