38 CONTEXT 184 : JUNE 2025 will take you to a beautiful place. According to Chalmers, virtual worlds are not second-class worlds and we can all have a meaningful life in this alternative universe. But virtual products, like facsimiles, are entirely without status and exclusivity. They are not of value as a store of wealth or a source of status. Heritage grows in value As time passes and inequality increases, the rich are looking for assets and experiences that others cannot have, confident in the knowledge that assets in short supply can only increase in value. The rich will be looking for the best-quality positional goods: exceptional houses, estates, landscapes and, above all, unique historic places. These are places they will want to enjoy, occupy, visit, shop in and own. It is the heritage sector that identifies the assets, protects them from deterioration, and (by reducing user pressures) can exclude those who are late into the game. Partly because of its long rich history as the centre of a vast empire, Great Britain is well endowed with such assets, their condition and setting carefully protected and policed by the planning system as listed buildings, registered parklands, national parks, national landscapes, scheduled ancient monuments, conservation areas and world heritage sites. What does this mean for conservation professionals? On the one hand they might feel complicit in protecting assets overwhelmingly valued and owned by the rich. But heritage assets have always been the privilege of the rich. And the benefits to conservation may be immense. If the rich value historic assets, they are likely to purchase them, use them and invest in them, either as land and property owners, or as philanthropists. Because the rich value historic assets, they will support and campaign for effective protection, especially since the need to care for heritage assets and enhance their financial value is likely to extend beyond the assets themselves to their context and setting. Owners have a vested interest in ensuring that their asset is not harmed by insensitive, low-quality development in the neighbourhood. This could drive up the quality of new and sympathetic design in historic areas. As asset values rise, the economic case for investing in heritage should rise accordingly. The use of heritage as a vehicle for city image projection, for tourism and for wider property investment will grow. Attracting the global rich as investors, visitors or residents brings their wealth, ideas, connections and tax revenues. Heritage, a uniquely significant national asset, is more likely to be perceived as having economic value in the future than the past. Unlike works of art, it cannot be moved out of the country. It will increase in both monetary and intrinsic value. Only rarely can the built heritage be moved out of the country. The redundant London Bridge, built in 1831, was re-erected in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, in 1967–71. (Photo: Marine 69–71, Wikimedia) Ian Wray is the author of Great British Plans, an honorary professor at Liverpool University’s Heseltine Institute and professorial fellow at Manchester University’s Planning School. He is grateful for comments on this paper from Peter de Figueiredo, Henry Owen John, Rob Cowan and Katie Wray.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzI0Mzk=