Heritage Protection for the 21st Century: White Paper
This consultation has now ended. The consultation period was 8 March - 1 June 2007
Documents
Details
An analysis of consultation responses was published on 29 November 2007
The proposals in Heritage Protection for the 21st Century, a joint England and Wales White Paper, are based on three core principles: the need to develop a unified approach to the historic environment; maximising opportunities for inclusion and involvement; and supporting sustainable communities by putting the historic environment at the heart of an effective planning system.
The paper sets out a vision of a unified and simpler heritage protection system, which will have more opportunities for public involvement and community engagement. The proposed system will be more open, accountable and transparent. It will offer all those with an interest in the historic environment a clearer record of what is protected and why; it will enable people who own or manage historic buildings and sites to have a better understanding of what features are important; it will streamline the consent procedures and create a more consultative and collaborative protection system.
This is a White Paper for England and Wales with some UK-wide elements. The first part sets out legislative change and implementation arrangements for England; the second covers implementation arrangements in Wales; and the third part covers legislative change affecting the marine historic environment across the United Kingdom.
The White Paper is accompanied by a Regulatory Impact Assessment, which sets out the options for reforming the heritage protection system and the costs and benefits of each option.
Alongside proposals on reforms to the protection system for the terrestrial and marine historic environment, this paper asks a number of specific questions on which we are seeking views.
This consultation has now ended. The consultation period was 8 March - 1 June 2007.
If you have any queries regarding this consultation please contact:
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England - Architecture and Historic Environment Division, DCMS, 2-4 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5DH
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Wales - Designations Branch, Cadw, Welsh Assembly Government, Plas Carew, Units 5/7 Cefn Coed, Nantgarw Cardiff, CF15 7QQ
Accompanying Documents
There are also a number of accompanying documents published along side the Heritage Protection for the 21st Century - White Paper:
- The revision to the Principles of Selection for listing buildings is one of the short-term measures of the DCMS Heritage Protection Review. This revision will ensure that the basis on which the Secretary of State makes listing decisions is made more transparent. This will allow a greater understanding of the listing and planning systems as a whole, and will encourage those with an interest to make an informed contribution to the processes. This new planning circular, which revises section 6 of PPG15 and the accompanying analysis of responses from the consultation held in 2005 are below:
Principles of Selection Consultation Response PDF (100kb)
The Planning Circular PDF (148kb)
More information can also be found on the Communities website.
- In addition to the revised Principles of Selection, Selection Guides for different building types are available on the English Heritage Website. These guides provide detailed technical information demonstrating what features are considered significant and likely to make a building of special architectural or historic interest when assessing buildings of a particular type from different periods, regions or styles:
www.english-heritage.org.uk/principlesofselection
Finally two reports were produced as part of the development of proposals contained within the White Paper:
- A report from Historic Environment Conservation was commissioned by DCMS to provide an independent assessment of the eight pilot projects undertaken by English Heritage to inform policy development. These pilots involved the testing of key heritage protection proposals, including Historic Asset Records (HARs) and Heritage Partnership Agreements (HPAs). It highlighted (and in some cases, quantified) potential gains for partners and stakeholders, while highlighting practical implementation issues.
Heritage Protection Review - Assessment of eight pilot projects for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport PDF (1.33mb large file)
- The Atkins Report presents the outcomes of detailed research (17 case studies of 32 local authorities) into the capacity of local government to deliver reforms proposed in the White Paper.
Atkins - Historic Environment Local Delivery Project PDF (2.8mb large file)
Further information is also available on the Heritage Protection Review page of the DCMS website