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ONE OF North Yorkshire’s stately home owners has welcomed the introduction of a new bill to protect historic buildings – but says it doesn’t go far enough.
Mr William Worsley, owner of Hovingham Hall, is deputy president of the Country Land and Business Association, which has issued a guarded response to the government’s draft Heritage Protection Bill.
He issued a statement saying:"Historic buildings are more popular than ever but, despite that, many buildings throughout England and Wales, not least our unique legacy of traditional farm buildings, are at risk.
"What is needed – particularly now that historic building grants to owners have all but dried up – is a heritage protection system that safeguards what is of real significance but allows carefully considered change to keep historic buildings relevant and financially viable. The current system is too complicated and simply not achieving this."
The draft Bill will create a new system based on a unified register for historic assets, replacing the current separate systems of listing, scheduling, and registering. For the first time it also gives owners of historic buildings rights of consultation before they are listed and rights of appeal afterwards."
Mr Worsley added that the CLA has some concerns about the details of the Bill: "The problem is what is not in the Bill. As a Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Bill, it only covers what the DCMS does - the designation of heritage.
"What matters more to buildings in practice is what happens when they need to be changed to make them relevant to the future. This is part of the planning system and run by local government, both outside the DCMS's remit.
"This is where the system is not working – especially because of lack of resourcing in the local authorities who operate it. It is hard to see how the Bill can change this, especially because it devolves even more decision-taking to hard-pressed local authorities. Nevertheless, this long-awaited Bill is a significant step forward.”
