The Government has recently launched its most ambitious heritage preservation campaign for 40 years, designed to empower people to help protect local identity through the planning system. It’s a chance to show what they consider to be important about the built environment and how buildings have a part to play in defining the character of a community.

The campaign challenges every local authority across England to compile lists of buildings of significant historical and cultural value. This will be supported by £700,000 worth of funding to help 10 English counties (which are yet to be announced) identify key areas on which to focus, along with requesting that every parish council gets involved.

A team of heritage experts, so-called Monuments Men and Women, will spearhead the campaign which will hopefully see local communities putting forward buildings that really mean something to them.

Planning authorities can already acknowledge buildings considered to be locally important by adopting ‘Local Listings’, recognising the positive contribution they make to the sense of place. This can be by way of their historic or architectural interest or the place they hold in the social and cultural heritage of the community.

Being added to a Local List affords some level of protection by the local planning authority, ensuring buildings are managed sympathetically and can continue to contribute to social and economic prosperity. Not all local planning authorities possess a Local List though and the Government’s scheme sets out to rectify this.

Developers will also be encouraged to think differently. Can a locally important building be retained within a redevelopment site? Can the structure be saved and its interest become a feature of celebration within a development?

Examples of buildings which have been or could potentially be added to a Local List include:

• The former Post Office in Everton, Hampshire. Identified in the Hordle Village Design Statement, a supplementary planning document adopted by the local planning authority, the Post Office features on a list of significant local buildings, acknowledging its place in the history of the village and its historic place in serving the community.
• The Tonbridge Evangelical Free Church in Tonbridge, Kent. Dating from 1912, the building was purpose built to provide a place of worship for a group of seceders from the town’s Baptist church. It remains in use today.
• West Buckland School in West Buckland, Somerset. Established in 1882 with alterations designed by local architects, the school continues to provide an education to the community and, despite later extensions to the rear, it retains its architectural integrity.

Your local planning authority should be able to provide details of a Local List in your area. If they don’t currently possess a list, or if you think a building should be included, why not get involved yourself?

Further information

See how Savills heritage planning team helps owners and occupants understand, manage and potentially develop historic buildings