Heritage Sector Net Zero Projects Audit
December 2024
December 2024
I’m Georgie and I’m Head of Government Affairs at the National Trust. I’m the Trust’s public policy lead and I help us engage with policy across the whole range of issues that the Trust has an interest in – from climate and nature to culture and heritage. That includes helping us reach organisational positions on key policy debates, policy changes or new legislation; finding ways to engage with government and policymakers to help feed the Trust’s experience and expertise into their decision making; and communicating and advocating for the Trust’s key asks of government.
I have a background working in Parliament as a House of Commons Clerk, and have spent time as a civil servant in central Government Departments.
The Trust’s founding purpose is to promote the permanent preservation of places of historic and natural beauty for the benefit of the nation. That means that we have an important role to play, not only in caring for the places that we look after, but in using our expertise and knowledge to help policy makers ensure that our shared natural and cultural heritage is there for future generations to enjoy across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and bringing the most benefit and enjoyment to as many people as possible.
I work on a range of policy issues that are directly relevant to the long-term resilience of the sector – from heritage protection and the planning system, to climate resilience, to sector skills and development. I work closely with others such as the Heritage Alliance, to make the case to Ministers for investment and support for the sector as a whole.
Success in political and policy advocacy is often hard to measure, because it comes in peaks and troughs, and it’s hard to pin down specific announcements or policy changes to individual contributions. But I’m ultimately aiming for Ministers across departments to understand and appreciate the value of heritage for their policy agendas and to want to support the sector. We have seen progress over the years – for example there were positive changes arising from the Levelling up and Regeneration Act, and I hope we can build on these in future.
You can see some of my team’s work on social media at: https://x.com/NTExtAffairs
I think we need to work together to be clear to government and other stakeholders what support we need, and make a persuasive case for how investing in heritage can benefit society as a whole.
This Sector Resilience interview was shared by Georgie as part of our Heritage Sector Resilience Plan activities.
If you’d like to contribute an interview as part of the series, follow the link below to find out more:
I am a trustee of registered charity Joined Up Heritage Sheffield. We are an umbrella organisation which seeks to provide a focus and resource for community-based heritage organisations throughout the city. We have some 700 associated supporters, both organisations and individuals, a diverse group united by a wish to champion the city’s rich heritage, empower everyone to take an interest in it and develop resources to improve their ability to engage with heritage.
JUHS was created about 8 years ago in response to a feeling amongst many community heritage groups and campaigners that heritage and its benefits were not receiving the recognition that they deserved and that without this both physical and intangible heritage were at risk. The Council is a critical decision maker and thought leader, but its attitude to heritage was widely perceived as needing a great deal of improvement. From an environment of very low levels of communication and trust, with heritage considered to be mainly a planning matter and of low priority generally, we have developed the relationship to the point where a community-written strategy is being incorporated in Council policy.
JUHS also seeks to create opportunities for people in the heritage sector to share ideas, challenges, opportunities and solutions and to make heritage more visible to the wider public. We do this through bi-monthly open meetings, a website where heritage groups can publicise their activities and ad hoc events such as public talks.
Our major project to date has been the production of the city’s first Heritage Strategy. We believe it to be unique in having been developed by community organisations, from the grassroots, unlike other strategies which have been produced by local authorities. It was also a case study in collaboration: both universities provided support, and the production of the strategy document itself was funded by the University of Sheffield. In February 2024 this strategy was adopted by the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee of Sheffield City Council and added to their work programme.
We have also been instrumental in setting up the Sheffield Heritage Partnership Board, which brings together other organisations within Sheffield to promote a strategic approach to heritage within both the local authority and other decision makers and stakeholders. Partners currently include the Council, the two universities, Sheffield Museums and Sheffield Property Association. The Partnership is the basis for a collaboration with the Council to design the implementation of the Heritage Strategy within their policies.
People who care about heritage and want to keep it alive and celebrate it need decision-makers who are aligned with the same aims. If heritage is not a priority for decision-makers, much of our time and effort is taken up with battles: first to be heard, then to be understood, and (hardest of all) to achieve change. Instead, we want to direct our efforts to the work that produces positive outcomes and value. The waste of time and effort and the frustration and futility so often experienced in the heritage sector are direct threats, sapping our limited resources. Get the decision-makers on side and we are already stronger and more resilient.
The adoption of the Heritage Strategy by Sheffield City Council is an important success already delivered. We are now working towards other major decision makers either adopting the strategy or creating their own plans for heritage inspired by the aims of the strategy.
Success in the short term means seeing Council plans and strategies explicitly integrating the adopted strategy. Their Council Plan 2024-2028 which sets out their role in helping the city achieve its ambitions was updated to recognise the heritage value of some proposals, and the draft Growth Plan 2025-2035 has been significantly changed following our input to express the role of heritage in the wider economy, rather than confining it to a single “cultural” sector. As new plans come forward we will seek similar changes.
In the longer term the challenge will be to translate these aspirations into reality. That should translate into such things as regeneration proposals seeking to retain and restore far more of the historic environment, public understanding and celebration of heritage being integral to such proposals from the start, more funding being sought and won from the Government, National Lottery Heritage Fund and others, reputational change for the Council, more communication between different heritage interests (especially those of previously underserved groups), greater use of heritage as a tool in education and health, more focus on heritage skills and retrofitting generally, a wider role for both tangible and intangible heritage in the visitor economy, and much more.
We have no defined metrics for this. For the time being it can be measured by comparison with previous experience. For example, the very fact that a new Council plan includes more than token mention of the words “heritage” or “history” demonstrates some degree of success.
The community – people, institutions, organisations, governors – need to show a united face and share common goals. This is what will win support from funders, investors, and the public.
This Sector Resilience interview was shared by Robin as part of our Heritage Sector Resilience Plan activities.
If you’d like to contribute an interview as part of the series, follow the link below to find out more:
I work as a heritage consultant at Donald Insall Associates, a practice that have been advising on informed change within the historic environment since the 1950s. The practice has pioneered a creative approach to architectural conservation and heritage consultancy for over 65 years.
I work in our York office with a great team of architects and heritage consultants, advising clients on how to unlock the potential of historic places and guiding interventions through the planning process. I have produced award-winning research into decarbonising historic buildings, and have been privileged enough to have worked on all sorts of heritage, from Cold War bunkers to cathedrals, engine sheds and grottos.
This year, we are working on a national pilot study to develop a Design Code to guide the reuse of historic textile mills in the North-West. Many weaving mills are declining or at risk of total loss. The research project aims to showcase how Design Codes (which are usually adopted as local planning policy) can be used for similar historic building types across a wide area, setting the standard of design and providing certainty at planning.
We also work on a lot of Conservation Management Plans (CMP) for heritage sites, which are policy documents that explain why somewhere is significant, and how this significance should be managed.
Recently, we produced a CMP for the York City Walls to aid sensitive adaptation and to accommodate modern requirements. A defining feature of York’s historic townscape, their management requires an interdisciplinary approach, engaging with conservation, archaeology, tourism, businesses and setting. Having a robust set of policies ensures that change can be managed consistently and sensitively in the long term.
We have also just finished a CMP for a large country house and agricultural estate in Trafford. Here, we explored how to make CMPs more resilient by focusing on how they can successfully be implemented. We used extensive stakeholder engagement and innovative digital techniques to improve accessibility, useability and future flexibility.
Policy documents such as Conservation Management Plans and Design Codes can be one of the most important reports a historic site can commission, as it sets the conservation strategy and actions for years to come. However, traditional CMPs can be cumbersome and inaccessible to non-experts. They often sit on a shelf gathering dust after the first 6 months!
Part of the problem is that not enough thought is given to how the policies will be implemented – how intentions will be translated into action – and the tools that staff have to be achieve this. Barriers can include changes in personnel, conflict with wider policy and legislation, funding, different interdisciplinary priorities, and a lack of understanding. These barriers to implementation have a substantial impact on the resilience of the historic environment.
We are leading the way with developing creative, innovative and client-led CMPs that make an impact. Each policy document is produced collaboratively and has mechanisms that allow for continuous learning and revision. Each project we work on helps contribute to the future preservation of our precious national heritage.
For us, a successful CMP is one that remains relevant over time as the historic environment evolves. It will contribute to resilience by providing a flexible and living framework of policy tools to help stakeholders manage unexpected changes.
For our country house CMP, we explored lots of innovative new ways of presenting the information so that difference audiences could access it. We published it to website platform and focused on interactive spatial mapping. This meant that staff could stand on site with their phone, click on a building and immediately have access to its historic features, significance and policies. We also provided a set of high-level principles that should apply to all future decisions. This bottom-up approach gives greater agency to the people responsible for change and also accommodates unforeseen circumstances.
For the York City Walls, we have remained in contact with the council department responsible for implementing the CMP policies. They identified that a design guide would be useful to give more detailed advice on how to implement the policies, and we continue to work with them on specific repair projects, providing a link between policy and action.
The historic textile mills design code is currently being produced for Pendle Council and you can get involved or keep updated on its progress here: https://www.pendle.gov.uk/info/20068/conservation_and_listed_buildings/610/conservation_of_textile_mills_and_weaving_sheds
The York City Walls CMP is available from this website: https://www.york.gov.uk/york-city-centre/caring-city-walls
Follow Donald Insall Associates on Linkedin for more information on the CMPs we are working on as they are published.
We love working with clients who are willing to explore innovative ways of creating flexible, resilient and interactive CMPs. This is often a steep learning curve for us all, but we see it as vital to ensure that CMPs remain a useful planning policy tool to inform sustainable change.
This Sector Resilience interview was shared by Rebecca as part of our Heritage Sector Resilience Plan activities.
If you’d like to contribute an interview as part of the series, follow the link below to find out more:
Recent research highlighted that there is a pipeline of investments in the heritage sector to mitigate emissions towards net zero, and adapt to climate change, in the framework of the wider UK green agenda. The sectors involved in this work (heritage, construction, energy production, marine, forestry and others) have few opportunities to work together, but understanding each other’s challenges is the first step to overcome barriers and work on collaborative solutions.
Therefore, the Historic Environment Forum invites members of trade bodies organisations & heritage organisations to participate in a groundbreaking roundtable discussion that aims to bridge the gap between various trade bodies and the heritage sector. This event presents a unique opportunity to address the critical intersection of sustainability and the management of historic landscapes and built environment.
The event will be held online, on Zoom, on 12 November 2024, 10:00-12:30. Alongside expert speakers, through facilitated discussions and breakout sessions, we’ll explore challenges, share insights, and develop collaborative strategies to promote high-quality, sustainable practices in the historic environment. You do not need prior experience of the heritage sector in order to participate effectively in this event.
Why attend?
By attending, you will:
Secure your place!
The event is free to attend, but spaces are limited. Reserve your spot here by 8th November 2024 and please do let us know if you have any special accessibility requirements. If you sign up, you will receive an agenda for the event one week prior to the event.
When you sign up you will receive joining instructions. If you have any questions, please do get in touch.
Bringing together senior members of staff from public and non-government bodies to work collaboratively on strategic matters for the historic environment sector.
