Listing Red Tape Slashed in Government Heritage Reform

University of East Anglia, Norwich English Heritage has warmly welcomed the publication of a Government White Paper (Thursday 8th March), that will strip out the bureaucracy of the heritage protection system, demystify the process of listing and make it fairer and more accessible.

For the first time, house owners will be consulted when their house is being considered for listing; they will have the right to appeal; it will be easier to make changes to complex listed sites; and the power to list buildings will be devolved to English Heritage from the Department for Culture Media and Sport. 

The legislative framework now proposed received wide support and consensus in a public consultation in 2003. Central to the list of improvements is a recommendation to create a single combined “Register” of all protected sites, monuments, gardens, archaeological sites and marine wrecks and to use a single, simple consent application procedure for all these different types of site on land.  To balance the increase in rights for owners in the new system, protection would be brought in to stop the hasty demolition of buildings during the period when they are being considered for listing.

Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, said: “This White Paper is a vote of confidence in the expertise and ability of English Heritage, both for taking responsibility for the designation of the nation’s heritage and in helping to create the best possible system for its protection and management.  These suggestions are the results of years of research, testing and advice from English Heritage and we are confident they will provide a more efficient and open system. It simply gives local councils and ourselves better, more modern tools for the job of protecting the historic environment.”

Proposed changes under the new system:

A faster, more open system will be devolved to English Heritage

• The Department for Culture Media and Sport will no longer make listing decisions. Responsibility for designation will rest with English Heritage.
• Decisions will be made more quickly and to agreed targets.
• English Heritage will open-up the system and consult owners when their property is being considered for designation.
• Interim legal protection will be introduced for historic assets being proposed for designation - to protect from hasty demolition.
• Owners will have a new right to appeal against a decision.
• English Heritage will de-mystify the process of designation by publishing its selection guides for buildings. Other guides will follow for other types of historic asset.

One simple system will unite all significant historic sites and buildings

• Listed buildings and scheduled monuments will be called “designated” buildings and sites and recorded in a combined “Register” as part of a unified national designation system - binding together archaeology and buildings for the first time.
• The designations grade I, grade II* and grade II will eventually be extended to all national assets on land.
• The Register will include historic marine sites and sites of early human activity without structures, in addition to historic buildings, archaeological sites, parks, gardens, battlefields and World Heritage Sites.

Applying for consent for works will become easier

• A single “Historic Asset Consent” will replace separate Listed Building Consent and Scheduled Monument Consent.
• Local Councils will administer all Historic Asset Consents. English Heritage will continue to give Councils formal advice where appropriate.
• Subject to consultation, Conservation Area Consent will be merged with Planning Permission.

Red tape will be cut for complex sites

A new type of “Heritage Partnership Agreement” between owners, managers, Councils and English Heritage will cut time-consuming consent administration and encourage strategic management of large sites.

• Owners of sites such as large estates, which have many similar assets under single management, will be able to avoid the need for multiple consent applications.
• English Heritage will help negotiate single consent agreements for sites that stretch across many local authority boundaries, such as stations on underground lines.
• Consent can be provided in advance for a large number of agreed works on complex sites such as university campuses and housing estates.
• Owners of archaeological sites under cultivation would be able to take part in a management agreement allowing them to be able to work protected land.

Protection for vulnerable sites will be strengthened

• World Heritage Site protection will be strengthened by the requirement for greater notification of major developments and strengthened protection against minor works.
• Protection will be strengthened for archaeological sites on cultivated land.  
• Marine sites and assets, of which there will be an extended range, will benefit from similar protection to that given to terrestrial assets.
• Designation will now include complex sites of early human activity that do not have structures.
• Subject to consultation, locally designated buildings could be protected from demolition and greater controls restored over Conservation Areas.

Implementation of the new system is underway

These reforms began in 2005 when listing administration was handed over to English Heritage. English Heritage will expand its programme of training and capacity-building for local authorities and provide them with clear guidance on new issues such as developing partnership agreements, changes to local designation and setting up their own local Historic Environment Records.

For more information please follow the links below:

Heritage Protection Reform

Principles of Selection for Designating Buildings