Savills Blog | Protecting the UK’s built heritage and its potential role in housing delivery

The committee took evidence on the following areas: unlocking the potential of built heritage, financial support for built heritage, workforce and skills, and the planning system.

As a result, it made several recommendations to the UK government on a wide range of issues. Some of the key recommendations include:

1) The adoption of a reuse-first approach to housing policy. Based on Historic England research that showed 670,000 homes could be provided through the reuse of vacant or under-used heritage buildings, it is proposed that much of the government’s housing target could be met using existing buildings.

The committee received evidence that this was a challenging approach and financial incentives would likely be required. The committee subsequently recommended tax incentives, perhaps modelled on Italy’s famous 1euro housing, but did not suggest what a British incentive scheme might look like.

2) As part of a reuse-first approach, the committee recommends that developers should demonstrate that reuse has been prioritised over demolition, potentially as part of the government’s High Streets Strategy.

Demonstrating that reuse has been prioritised over demolition will be challenging and would also require local planning authorities to diversify their skills further.

3) The committee also made several recommendations on VAT which included reducing or removing the tax from eligible restoration works, perhaps limited to those works that bring listed buildings back into use.

Tax relief would be challenging in this fiscal climate; however, it was only in 2012 that zero-rated VAT on approved works to listed buildings was abolished.

4) On national planning policy the committee recommends that the government should publish a review of how the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has impacted listed buildings. The report also encourages the further use of Listed Building Consent Orders (LBCOs) – which can be used to grant listed building consent for certain low-risk and straightforward works. Although, to date, they have only been adopted locally.

A review of the impact of the new NPPF is sensible, while the call for LBCOs has been widely discussed in recent years and could help with low-risk work. A national LBCO would be a bold intervention which could be transformative for very modest works.

5) There is a key skills shortage across all levels of the heritage industry. Local planning authorities have reported a sharp drop in the number of conservation officers because of budget issues, while construction skills are declining with an ageing workforce and insufficient training. The committee recommends creating protected training pathways and new multi-employer apprenticeship schemes.

The proposals to improve heritage skills will be beneficial but would likely require additional funding for apprenticeships.