The Historic Houses Association (HHA) has released its future plan for 2010 and beyond. And last month the National Trust (NT) launched its Going Local strategy, which has an emphasis on allowing individual property managers to have more input into the interpretation and organisation of their properties.
This will open up the possibility of visitors handling historic artefacts, and allowing the public to use the property for community purposes.
The HHA argues that much of what Britain’s historic houses contribute to the health and wellbeing of the nation is not recognised by politicians and funders.
Inspirational Places: the value of Britain’s historic houses, based on quantitative evidence from a comprehensive analysis of the association’s 1,500 member houses, outlines the challenges facing historic houses and proposes solutions, many of which it says could be implemented at little or no cost.
In the Inspirational Places document, the HHA sets out its five key proposals to improve the situation for its 1,500 historic houses – a third of which are open to the public.
HHA has been meeting with all three main political parties in England and has presented the benefits to the nation in terms of the appeal to the public of the lived-in and owned status of the properties.
And unlike museums and galleries, says the HHA, these properties have enough space to show all they have.
Nick Way, the director general of the HHA, told Museums Journal that it wants all the political parties to acknowledge that privately owned heritage is one of the biggest parts of the heritage sector in the UK.
According to the HHA, the backlog of urgent repairs to its members’ houses has risen from £260m in 2003 to £390m in 2009 (£280m is from houses open to the public).
One owner in eight has sold art to finance repairs and the cost of property maintenance and conservation have been rising faster than inflation, says Way.
As a result, the association is calling for tax breaks through a special Heritage Maintenance Fund. Some historic houses are set up as charitable trusts and therefore are exempt from paying tax on maintenance and repairs.
But the proposed tax breaks are for only those houses open to the public or Grade I- or II-listed properties. The HHA has estimated this would cover up to 400 properties. The annual cost to taxpayers is set at £10m, and the HHA says an increase in maintenance will bring back income tax and VAT to the treasury.
For many privately owned houses, visitor charges are the only source of income. According to the HHA, recently introduced licensing laws mean that historic houses that organise concerts and other events face increased costs.
Before 2003 it cost houses such as Knebworth in Hertfordshire £13,000 to host a concert. Under the new regulations, it will cost £60,000 a year. The HHA wants the government to consider banding events to make the pricing fairer.
In perhaps what is its most controversial proposal, the HHA is calling on the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and government to consider a change in policy to allow its members to apply for lottery grants for capital projects, where the benefit to the public is significant. At the moment privately owned properties can only apply for lottery money for education projects.
The reduction in HLF funding because of money being diverted to the Olympics means it is unlikely HHA will get a look in. But Way says the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats have both promised improved funding to the lottery bodies.
Way says he has regular conversations with the political culture teams who he says have shown sympathy towards the plight of historic houses. “We are asking for relatively small [contributions] but the benefits are big,” he says.
Britain’s historic houses at a glance
- £1.3m total English Heritage annual grants to privately owned historic houses
- For every £10,000 of grant aid received from English Heritage, an average of £46,000 is levered in from other sources (English Heritage, 2005)
- 70 per cent of people visit historic sites every year (DCMS Taking Part Survey 2007-08)
- 14m visitors a year (HHA, 2009)
- The number of conservation staff in local authorities fell by 7 per cent between 2006 and 2008 (English Heritage, 2009)
- Cost of entry for a family of four for a day to a larger property is on average £40 to £50
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