HELM what does it mean to you

ivan burit · HELM what does it mean to you

Welcome to this special edition of the HELM newsletter. We are delighted to present this additional bulletin which outlines the draft Heritage Protection Bill, which the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has developed in conjunction with English Heritage. The draft Bill will have significant implications on how local authorities manage their local heritage assets and it is important that they are aware of what will be expected.

The Bill represents a huge step forward in how the historic environment is protected in England and puts local expertise and engaging with the public at the heart of heritage protection and is a major step forward in the way that England's heritage is managed. The new accountable, less bureaucratic, system will close gaps in protection, strip out red-tape and see decisions made at a local level and by English Heritage instead of central government.

The current system has built up through piecemeal legislation over the last 120 years and its different legal components both overlap and leave gaps, confuse and exclude the public and give conservation staff an unnecessary administrative workload. In creating the draft Bill, the Government has received several years of research and advice from experts across the conservation sector, including English Heritage and consulted key professional bodies such as Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers, Institute of Historic Building Conservators and the Local Government Association.

Power for Local Authorities
Local historic environment services are currently, and will remain, the front line in the protection of the country's most valuable historic assets. Local services are to gain independence from central government and have full power over the consent process. The draft Bill brings change to both aspects of the heritage protection system; the identification of what is important and the management of the designated asset.

Identification
There will be a single statutory register of all designated sites, abolishing the confusing and often overlapping regimes of listing, scheduling and registration for parks, gardens and battlefields. Marine assets and World Heritage Sites will also be included on the Register. The Register will be available online with a full explanation of what is special and why.

English Heritage will be given the responsibility for designation. Currently English Heritage advises government who make the decision on whether to designate an asset.

English Heritage will undertake a public consultation on the priorities for future places, sites and buildings to be designated.

English Heritage will formally consult with Local Planning Authorities, owners and others on applications to designate assets. Local Planning Authorities are already consulted on additions to the List.

There will be a new right of appeal to Government against decisions taken by English Heritage open to owners, Local Planning Authorities and applicants.

Interim legal protection will be introduced for historic places being considered for designation, to prevent demolition or damage while the new and more accountable designation process is underway.

Local Planning Authorities will notify owners and occupiers of all newly-designated assets. They already notify owners when a property is listed.

Management
A single Heritage Asset Consent will replace separate Listed Building and Scheduled Monument Consent. This will streamline the consent process.

Local Planning Authorities will be given the power to grant all new Historic Asset Consents - abolishing the role of central government in granting Scheduled Monument Consent.

For the first time local authorities will have consistent responsibility for all heritage assets in an area, including archaeology, which currently only account for around 2% of total consent cases. Registered heritage open spaces will remain a material consideration in the planning process.

Local Planning Authorities will have the power to issue an enforcement notice when illegal works have been carried out on any designated asset. Enforcement powers have always been available for buildings but urgent works and compulsory acquisition powers will now apply to ALL asset types.

The current requirement for works to be 'urgently necessary' under the Urgent Works Notice procedures is to be changed so that works only need to be 'necessary' and only works that would interfere with residential use cannot be carried out.

There will be easier management of wrecks and submerged archaeological sites as marine historic assets are brought together with those on land. Clear new guidance is being developed by EH

Local Planning Authorities will determine whether an asset is of special local interest and will be responsible for publishing criteria against which assets of special local interest are assessed. Local Planning Authorities will also be responsible for consulting with the owner of the site they consider to be of special local interest. Planning permission may be required for demolition of any locally registered heritage asset.

Local Planning Authorities (County Councils in two-tier regions) will have a duty to create, maintain and make available a Historic Environment Record of identified assets within their area. Many authorities already have Historic Environment Records but some will require additional support. Guidance and some funding will be available from English Heritage and DCMS to improve local authority Historic Environment Records where necessary.

Conservation Area Consent will be merged with Planning Permission. This will streamline the planning process and reduce the burden of the need for a separate consent.

Local authorities will continue to designate Conservation Areas, with additional criteria to consider of special archaeological and artistic interest.

Planning permission will now be required for demolition of part of a building, as well as the whole of a building within a Conservation Area.

Local authorities considering a planning application affecting a Conservation Area will have a duty to seek benefits for the area in any proposals, whilst retaining special regard to the desirability of preserving or enhancing the areas.

Local Authorities will have the power to create Heritage Partnership Agreements to eliminate the need for multiple consent applications affecting a heritage asset, such as an office block or a series of heritage assets such as university campuses, transport networks and so on. These agreements will greatly cut the need for ad-hoc decision-making and repetitive consent administration, and will mean better partnerships between authorities, owners and EH.

Testing the System
A number of pilot projects were established nationally in 2004 to test the principles of the Bill and in particular Heritage Partnership Agreements.

For further information on the pilot projects go to: http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/...rp_breport_eightpilotprojects.pdf

Higher New Bridge,
North CornwallPilot projects: A case study
Cornish Bridges, crosses and milestones

This project took in 27 bridges, 22 milestones and 7 crosses across North Cornwall. A Heritage Partnership Agreement was created between the Local Planning Authority, the Highways Agency and English Heritage.

Over a 5 year period the Local Planning Authority received 35 consent applications (11 for listed building consent and 24 for scheduled monument consent).
It was estimated that the Heritage Partnership Agreement reduced consent processing time from 13 hours to around two hours per operation (including preparation, visit and admin).
The Agreement also quickened decision making to two days (including notification of works and recording).
Based on these time savings it was estimated that in this case a Heritage Partnership Agreement would incur a one-off.
set up cost of £4464 but result in repeated annual savings of £2558 from then on.

Benefits of the Draft Bill
It's an opportunity to modernise historic environment services – the new system will bring conservation officers and archaeologists much closer together. This provides the incentive to develop more efficient pools of heritage experts as some authorities have already done.

There will be less red tape – with a single register and a single consent process, management agreements to cut down paperwork and Conservation Area Consent merged with planning permission, the new system will be easier to administer.

Power rests at local level – historic environment services will be empowered to manage and maintain the local historic environment.

It's easier to explain to the public – the current system is very complex and the new, more accountable, system will help to support transparency and accessibility in local government.

Concerns
What about Local authority resources?
Although the new power to grant Historic Asset Consent will be undertaken with the advice of English Heritage, it is a new responsibility, and some authorities may need training to prepare for this change. We echo concerns from local authorities that local historic environment services must be resourced with people with the right skills to meet the new responsibilities.

In addition, it is not foreseen that there will be a huge increase in consent applications. Research has shown that in 2006/7 DCMS handled 1010 Scheduled Monument Consent applications - an average of 2 per Authority. Even with a possible projected 28% increase in applications in the first year of enactment of the draft Bill (2010/11) this would result in a total of 1293 applications (an average of 3 archaeology consents per year, per Authority).

DCMS is committed to funding the estimated additional annual costs of processing Historic Asset Consent (£400,000 pa).

Following publication of the draft Bill, English Heritage is keen to work further with the LGA and DCMS to assess the impact on local authorities in more detail. Further information can be found in the Impact Assessment which accompanied the publication of the draft Bill.

Are there enough English Heritage resources?
English Heritage has earmarked sufficient resources over the next three years to carry out its new duties and to provide local authority training and support during implementation.

What if the Bill changes?
The draft Bill, as published, represents a modern, transparent, system that protects heritage and helps those charged with managing it as well as those who wish to make changes to it. We will resist changes that reduce protection for our heritage or place unnecessary burdens on conservation staff.

The Progress of Heritage Protection Reform
The publication of the draft Bill is the culmination of a number of years work on reforming the current system. First articulated in Power of Place, the sector's overview of the way ahead for the historic environment (published in 2001), it was taken up by government in the DCMS response A Force for our Future in 2002; put to extensive public consultation in 2003 and formulated as government policy in the White Paper Heritage Protection for the 21st Century, published in March 2007.

There are still a number of steps to be taken if this important draft Bill is to be enacted and implemented. The draft Bill will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny during the 2007/8 parliamentary session which may result in some amendments. Additional drafting and refining of the current draft Bill will continue prior to its introduction to Parliament. DCMS are bidding for a slot in the government's legislative programme in the 2008/9 parliamentary session. If all is successful implementation of the Bill could take place from 2010.

Champions Conference
On the 23 October English Heritage will be holding a national conference for Heritage Champions. A large portion of that day will be devoted to heritage protection reform and it will offer champions an opportunity to discuss, in more detail, their thoughts on the proposed legislation.

Your next quarterly update will be Sept 2008.

For further information, please contact the Heritage Protection Reform Team:

English Heritage, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138-142 Holborn, London, EC1N 2ST
tel: 020 7973 3135/3144
e-mail: hprt@english-heritage.org.uk
www.english-heritage.org.uk
Contact details
If you have any queries relating to this newsletter or to unsubscribe please email info@helm.org.uk or phone Timothy Brooks 020 7973 3223.