This year 'Heritage Counts' explores the historic environment and Big Society. New research from The Heritage Alliance and Civic Voice explores the role of heritage organisations and civic societies in maintaining and promoting our historic environment, and how the historic environment acts as a channel for getting people involved in shaping their area.
'Heritage Counts' regional reports can be downloaded on the Heritage Counts regional page.
The Historic Environment Forum recognises however that more could be done to increase and broaden community involvement in the historic environment.
An issue which is particularly important in light of the Localism Bill, and greater community involvement in planning. To support local heritage groups and civic societies in widening membership we have produced a checklist which groups can work through to come up with solutions which work for them. For more information on this visit the Increasing Community Involvement in Heritage page on this website.
As in previous years, 'Heritage Counts' includes a summary of the key policy developments of 2011 and discusses the key trends affecting the historic environment. This includes changes to the number of planning applications affecting the historic environment, funding, employment levels and visitor figures. The data is available in Excel spreadsheets at national, regional and where possible local level.
Please see the paragraph below on the state of the historic environment in 2011 for these spreadsheets.
The historic environment fosters a vision for an area and helps shapes communities.
- 46% of members of The Heritage Alliance provide advice and guidance on planning for regional and local groups.
- Seven out of ten civic societies engage with their local development framework and 85% comment on planning applications.
- Just under a third (27%) of local groups who responded to The Heritage Alliance survey are already managing heritage sites on behalf of the local authority.
The historic environment provides the context or means by which local people can take an active role in their local area – turning a place into a community.
- 50% of The Heritage Alliance members offer volunteering opportunities in local communities.
- Civic volunteers are involved in a wide range of activities including looking after historic places or buildings (46%), undertaking guided walks or tours (42%) or opening up heritage to their local communities through events such as Heritage Open Days.
The benefits of involvement in the historic environment are wide-ranging.
- Nine out of ten (87%) volunteers on Heritage Lottery Fund projects agreed that their skills had improved as a result of taking part in the project.
- One in three (35%) Heritage Open Day volunteers reported an increase in self-esteem and confidence in their abilities after taking part in the event.
'Heritage Counts 2011' continues to report on national indicators. As in recent years the decline in public and private finance remains a concern.
The national indicators are divided into three sections:
- Understanding the Assets – extent of heritage assets in England including listed buildings, scheduled monuments and registered parks and gardens.
- Caring and Sharing – data on the condition of assets and resources and the funding available to manage them (for example levels of public sector funding, Heritage at Risk, employment levels and planning consents affecting the historic environment).
- Using and Benefiting – data on visitor numbers, membership and volunteers as well as student figures and attitudes towards heritage.
These maps show the location of heritage assets in England: