36 / 208
3 4
T H E B U I L D I N G C O N S E R VAT I O N D I R E C T O R Y 2 0 1 5
T W E N T Y S E C O N D E D I T I O N
1
PROFESS IONAL SERV I CES
THE ENTERPRISE AND
REGULATORY REFORM ACT
An appraisal of the new heritage measures
SARAH BUCKINGHAM, RICHARD MORRICE and CRAIG BROADWITH
T
HE
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Act 2013
(ERR) was a veritable leviathan
of statute, covering issues as diverse
as agricultural workers and whistleblowing,
copyright, competition, compensation, and
other areas where the government felt the
need to prod protagonists into growth-
creating activity. You could have been
forgiven for not noticing, nestled in the
belly of the beast, the provisions relating
to heritage, yet these include the most
radical changes to the management of listed
buildings in England since listed building
consent (LBC) itself was introduced in 1968.
Although all the heritage measures fit
the government’s deregulatory mission, some
go beyond that to facilitate a very different
approach to the regulation of change. Listed
building heritage partnership agreements
(LBHPAs), local listed building consent
orders (LLBCOs) and national listed building
consent orders all introduce alternative
mechanisms for granting listed building
consent, whereby pre-negotiated packages
of works of alteration and extension to listed
buildings can be given long-term consent.
Through these, local planning authorities,
and in some instances the secretary of
state, will be able to deal with predictable,
repetitive works to listed buildings over time
through a single consent rather than a series
of applications. The aim is to reduce red tape
without harming the historic environment
and, reassuringly, the duty to have special
regard to the desirability of preserving
special interest remains.
These changes are underpinned by
changes to the listing system allowing the
identification at the point of designation of
parts or features of a building, structures
attached to it or in its curtilage, which
need not be treated as listed, as they do not
possess special interest. Overall, the package
of reforms reflects a developing emphasis
on distinguishing between interventions
that are considered routine and those that
are truly significant, and on encouraging
pro-active work on the part of regulatory
bodies to make this distinction much clearer.
They also begin to redefine the relationship
between local planning authorities and
English Heritage and those who own and
manage listed buildings, many of whom
are knowledgeable and responsible enough
to be partners in the process rather than
simply recipients of handed-down decisions.
The challenges ahead for the whole heritage
sector are not only to test and roll out the
mechanics of this change, but also to adapt
to this less adversarial, more co-operative
culture.
Heritage partnership agreements
covering a listed building or related group of
listed buildings require strong collaborative
working between the local planning authority
and owner to reach consensus on what is
most significant about the building, and how
this may be addressed in long-term packages
of work consented through the agreement.
Practical benefits will include reducing the
occasions when applications for LBC are
required; increasing the prospect of success
for any additional LBC applications which
may still be required; and creating certainty
over future plans for the building(s). Thus
owners and local authorities stand to gain
as trust is developed between them, risk is
reduced and savings are made in both time
and resources.
Used together, LBHPAs and the
subsequent ‘certificates of lawfulness
of works’ have the potential to reduce
significantly the need for separate LBC
applications for a given building or group
of buildings, as Case Study 1 (below)
demonstrates. Certificates of Lawfulness of
Works, which were also introduced in the
ERR Act, are a simple mechanism allowing
the owner of a property to seek written
assurance from the relevant local planning
authority that LBC will not be required for
proposed works to a listed building because
they do not affect its special interest. They
mirror the Certificates of Lawful Use
or Development already available in the
planning system.
Falmer House at the University of Sussex: designed by Sir Basil Spence in the early 1960s, the building is one of only two educational buildings in the UK to be Grade I
listed. Proposals for a listed building heritage partnership agreement covering this and other listed buildings at the university are under way and should give the
university greater flexibility in the management of its buildings.