A significant part of my job is the development of strategic partnerships across government and the law enforcement and heritage sectors in order to identify opportunities to shape new policies that will help us to deliver effective measures to protect heritage assets and the wider historic environment from the threat of crime and anti-social behaviour.

Policy and advocacy work is at the heart of Historic Houses. We were founded as a lobbying organisation just over 50 years ago, and it’s still core to our work today. We aim to create a better fiscal and regulatory framework for independent historic houses – which, for our members, means a more supportive fiscal framework (we’ve campaigned on reforming Heritage Maintenance Funds, on targeted VAT rebate schemes for repairs and maintenance to listed buildings, and the like), as well as a smarter regulatory framework. The majority of our members are rural SMEs, and they want it to be easier to install clean energy, to adapt buildings for residential or commercial use to support the main heritage asset, and to not be weighed down by red tape and paperwork.

The biggest existential issue our members are facing at the moment is around insurance. Premiums have skyrocketed in recent years, and some Historic Houses places are struggling to meet these costs. Insurance of highly listed buildings is obviously extremely important, so we’re actively flagging this issue to government and Historic England to highlight the problems and to lobby on potential mitigation measures.

So, we cover a lot of policy areas: there’s never a dull day!

Like many similar organisations we face a serous demographic and engagement challenge and that is reflected in our own governance issues. This s a mix of changing public tastes and priorities, ageing volunteers, reduced rates of volunteering post Covid, cost of living pressures etc. The fanatical drive of 1960s/1970s preservationists (which saved many vessels) reflects its time and is not easily replicable. New forms of engagement and wider community appeal are needed if surviving heritage is to be cared for effectively.

The first challenge for MHT was to renew the Board and to be effective that needed to be in terms of age and diversity. After an external review in early 2022, honorary roles were established so that those who had given many years of service could continue to do so in an advisory role while a block of 4 vacant Trustee places created were the subject of a younger Trustee recruitment drive. The outcome was a new Board with 50% gender diversity and a much lower average age, working alongside a young part time staff member. This is not the end of the story; in a similar cycle, other Trustees with the longest  experience will soon need to consider moving on and replacements attracted.

The work to update the governance of Historic Buildings & Places started at the trustee board before my appointment but has been something I have focused on over the last two years. The reason for this being such a focus is to update the charity and make it better equipped to work to protect heritage going forward.

One part has been moving the charity to be a CIO (charitably incorporated organisation) and this has been a long legal process, working with our members and legal advice to set up and new charity in the model of best practice as advised by the Charity Commission.

The second aspect has been about updating the board of trustees’ ways of working, bringing in trustees term limits, and running an active programme of trustee retirement and recruitment which will take several years to complete but has so far given us 7 new trustees including a new chair.