Civic Voice responds to announcement on the future of English Heritage
Civic Voice responds to announcement on future of English Heritage
Responding to the announcement today (14th October) from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport that the Government has formally approved the restructuring of English Heritage, Freddie Gick, Chair of Civic Voice said:
“We welcome the government’s decision to support English Heritage’s proposals to safeguard our National Heritage Collection. Heritage-related tourism contributes over £20bn per annum to the national economy and is a key factor in our ongoing economic recovery".
‘Giving the new organisation additional freedom as a charity provides an opportunity for innovation and creativity in generating new sources of income. Though we had concerns about some of the assumptions in the English Heritage business plan when originally proposed, we are confident that English Heritage management and trustees will have carefully considered every aspect of the proposal in great detail.”
English Heritage will be awarded nearly £90 million over the next few years to invest in the National Heritage Collection of 420 historic sites, monuments and collections in its care. This will support the plan to transfer management of the Collection to a new charity, licensed by English Heritage’s governing body, The English Heritage Commission.
Planning and heritage protection responsibilities will be taken on by a separate non-departmental public body, to be known as Historic England.
Gick finished by saying “Civic Voice enjoys an excellent working relationship with English Heritage. We wish the management and Trustees of English Heritage every success with this new challenge and we look forward to developing productive partnerships with both aspects of the new structure.”
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Civic Voice is the national charity for the civic movement. We work to make the places where everyone lives more attractive, enjoyable and distinctive and to promote civic pride. We speak up for civic societies and local communities across England. We believe everyone should live somewhere they can be proud of and we know how people feel about places because we feel the same way. Civic societies are the most numerous participants in the planning system. Since its launch in April 2010 Civic Voice has been joined by over 290 civic societies with 75,000 members. Further information is available at http://www.civicvoice.org.uk including how to join Civic Voice (£10 individuals) and contact details for local civic societies.
The DCMS decision and summary of the Business Plan is at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-model-for-english-heritage-moves-a-step-closer-following-consultation
Contact details
Ian Harvey, Executive Director, Civic Voice, 0151 707 4319 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)