The Value of Heritage report APPG CPP 2022

1 First report of All-Party Parliamentary Group’s on Conservation, Places and People (APPGCPP)
2 IHBC’s CREATIVE Conservation Fund
3 Findings
4 Related articles on Designing Buildings

First report of All-Party Parliamentary Group’s on Conservation, Places and People (APPGCPP)

IHBC’s early update on UK Parliamentary Group’s first Inquiry report, on ‘The Value of Heritage’, from Westminster.

Targeted cuts in VAT on listed building refurbishments and a presumption against demolition of existing properties are among recommendations in a UK-wide All-Party Parliamentary Group’s (APPG) first report, on ‘The Value of Heritage’, supported by the IHBC, launched in Westminster on 1 December, and another major event in the IHBC’s 25th anniversary year:

Responding to the publication of the ‘The Value of Heritage’ report, IHBC Chair David McDonald – who led the welcome of the recommendations at yesterday’s launch – said: ‘I am delighted to welcome this report from the APPG’s first Inquiry, into ‘The Value of Heritage, and would like to congratulate the APPG’s Chair James Grundy MP on leading the Inquiry and, yesterday, its formal launch in the House of Commons’.

‘The published report brings together evidence presented to the inquiry to demonstrate the economic, environmental and social value that heritage delivers.’

IHBC’s CREATIVE Conservation Fund

IHBC Director Seán O’Reilly, said: ‘We’re delighted that the publication has been co-funded though the IHBC’s CREATIVE Conservation Fund and the IHBC’s 25th anniversary initiative #IHBC25. To further mark that advocacy, anniversary and association, we’ll also – and exceptionally – be including hard-copies of the report with the next, IHBC25, issue of Context!’

‘Obviously too, to get full value from that, please be sure to pass your copy to your non-IHBC colleagues so they too can better appreciate just what the sector sees as ‘The Value of Heritage’.

David Blackman, the IHBC’s consulting Secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conservation, Places and People (CPPAPPG), writes: ‘This is the result of a year plus long inquiry by the APPG, under its chair, James Grundy MP, supported by the IHBC.’

Findings

‘The inquiry found that businesses, particularly those in the creative sectors, are often drawn to the distinctive character of historic buildings and neighbourhoods. They are also attracted by the cheap rents and flexible floorspaces offered by heritage buildings, like historic factories and warehouses.’

‘The new uses businesses have found for redundant, historic factories and offices have often spurred the regeneration of peripheral former commercial and industrial, inner-city areas, like in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle.’

‘Supporting efforts to refurbish historic buildings would also provide a valuable fillip at a time of grave uncertainty in the construction industry, for the smaller firms that tend to do this kind of work, the report found.’

‘The inquiry took evidence on how encouraging the reuse and retrofit of heritage will help to avoid the release of the embodied carbon tied up in the materials that make up existing buildings.’

‘In addition, the APPG heard extensive evidence about how heritage can help to provide the glue, which can help to foster local identity in communities.’

Read ‘The Value of Heritage’

See more on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conservation, Places and People (CPPAPPG)

See more background to the Inquiry HERE

This article appears on the IHBC news and blog site as "IHBC’s early update on UK Parliamentary Group’s first Inquiry report, on ‘The Value of Heritage’, from Westminster, in #IHBC25" dated December 2

--Institute of Historic Building Conservation