
Heritage Manifesto 2023
Heritage Manifesto 2023
The Heritage Manifesto 2023 has been collaboratively created to draw attention to the key policy measures needed to ensure the future of our shared heritage. It urges all major political parties to adopt a five-point plan to not only protect it, but to maximise the benefits it can create for communities and the environment.
The Heritage Manifesto represents the views of the Heritage Alliance’s 200-strong membership, covering the breadth of the sector from science to creativity, from museums, railways, and gardens, to shipwrecks, canals, and theatres, from archaeological sites to places of worship and so much more.
Ahead of the next UK general election, the Heritage Alliance has published the 2023 Heritage Manifesto demonstrating how heritage provides solutions to a range of public policy challenges and setting out a vision for the sector under the next term of government.
Heritage is a £36bn industry, our most popular cultural export and our favourite national pastime. Heritage is at the heart of communities from urban centres to the countryside – 80% of people think local heritage makes living in their area better. Throughout the twin challenges of the pandemic and cost of living crisis, support for heritage has been both critical and a sound investment. Yet challenges remain, with volunteering and visitor numbers yet to recover, specialist skills becoming increasingly endangered, and a national retrofit challenge to meet climate change priorities.
The Heritage Manifesto has been collaboratively created to draw attention to the key policy measures needed to ensure the future of our shared heritage. It urges all major political parties to adopt a five-point plan to not only protect it, but to maximise the benefits it can create for communities and the environment. The Heritage Manifesto represents the views of the Heritage Alliance’s 200-strong membership, covering the breadth of the sector from science to creativity, from museums, railways, and gardens, to shipwrecks, canals, and theatres, from archaeological sites to places of worship and so much more.
The Heritage Manifesto sets out five key priorities for all decision makers:
1. Support community cohesion and put heritage at the heart of regeneration by:
Investing in and empowering councils and communities to protect and make the most of heritage locally. This should include support for targeted regeneration schemes, removing permitted development on demolition, incentivising reuse of historic buildings, and embedding culture-led regeneration and community ownership in future housing and community strategies.
2. Embed the historic environment in nature recovery and net zero strategies by:
Ensuring Environmental Land Management schemes provide robust long-term funding to land managers of at least £4.4bn a year (which includes delivering heritage outcomes on an equal footing), reforming Energy Performance Certificates, and bringing forward skills training, funding, standards, and advice in a National Retrofit Strategy.
3. Reform the tax regime to promote long-term sustainable growth by:
Equalising VAT on repair and maintenance with newbuild, simplifying and reducing the burden of business rates, and continuing support for the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.
4. Harness cultural learning and skills at every age and help our workforce thrive by:
Encouraging youth visits to heritage sites in the curriculum through subsidised entry, implementing cross-subsidised shared apprenticeship schemes, reforming the Apprenticeship Levy, and offering unsponsored and conservation skill-oriented visas for heritage.
5. Futureproof heritage institutions at both a national and a local level by:
Ensuring the adequate funding and continued stability of arms-length heritage bodies, protecting the 20% share of Lottery funding for the National Lottery Heritage Fund, supporting statutory Historic Environment Records with ringfenced investment in local authorities for heritage expertise, and supporting proposals for a National Centre for Archaeological Archives.
Go to the Heritage Manifesto 2023 (PDF)
