Local Heritage List Campaign: Call for expressions of interest launched by MHCLG

In October 2019, the Government announced the most ambitious local heritage campaign for decades. New funding is being made available to 10 areas in a campaign to encourage communities to nominate historic buildings and other heritage assets which they value most for inclusion in their council’s local list, helping to protect them through the planning system.  
 
Local Lists have been around for many years and nearly half of the Local Planning Authorities in England already have one. What is new is that Local Lists are being promoted in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and MHCLG is encouraging all local authorities to compile one. We would be pleased to come and give a talk to any society who wants to learn more about local heritage listing.

To support the campaign, the Government is providing £700,000 of funding to councils in 10 English county areas to develop new or updated local lists.   The Government is today inviting expressions of interest from local authorities keen to take part in the campaign and work up projects.
 
The funding is intended to support projects which involve a county-wide approach to developing local lists. We will, however, consider other proposals, for example, from civic societies and local historic building societies, provided there is a lead authority working in partnership with other groups. 

Authorities should submit their expression of interest to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 23:59 on Friday 13 November 2020.
 
Learn more about the Local Heritage Listing campaign on the MHCLG website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-heritage-list-campaign-call-for-expressions-of-interest
 
Questions to consider include:
  • Brief overview of current extent of local listing in area to be covered and need for funding (No more than 300 words)
  • Broad outline of what proposed scheme will involve (to include details of: 1. any work on local lists which has already taken place, is in progress or is planned; and an explanation of how the local list information will be made publicly accessible including through the Historic Environment Record) (No more than 300 words)
  • Broad outline of proposed community engagement strategy in developing local lists, including identity of any relevant local partners (No more than 300 words)
  • Estimate of level of funding sought and what it is anticipated the funding will be used for (e.g. staff resources, community engagement, technology) (No more than 300 words)

 You can check the Civic Voice campaign page to see if your local authority has a current local heritage list.

Civic Voice said: "This is a campaign that we have been running since 2014 and we welcome the moves by the Government to recognise the importance of Local Heritage Listing nationally. The key success of this campaign will be to ensure that the local authorities involved have the appropriate resources and political will to embrace such a Local List. This is because local listing still offers only basic protection and without the resources, local authorities will not take them forward. This funding is a start to helping that. We hope civic societies and local authorities will work together on creating or reviewing lists where possible, because following the government’s Planning for the Future white paper, published in August, you could argue that non-designated heritage assets in areas outside of 'protected' zones are likely to come under even more pressure".Many civic societies have helped compile a Local Heritage List and are using it to ensure they have an extra "tool" to champion the local historic environment.  You can use the Civic Voice toolkit - referenced by the Government - as a basis for your application.

MORE INFORMATION

Civic Voice would be happy to talk with any local authorities and community groups who are interested in putting forward applications. Get in touch via: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).