CONTEXT 185 : SEPTEMBER 2025 49 IHBC celebrates World Heritage UK’s anniversary IHBC president Rebecca Thompson writes: On Wednesday 30 April IHBC director Seán O’Reilly and I attended World Heritage UK’s 10th anniversary reception at Portcullis House, Westminster. World Heritage UK is the only independent national organisation dedicated exclusively to supporting and promoting the sustainable planning, protection and management of its 35 world heritage sites in accordance with the UK’s commitment to Unesco’s World Heritage Convention. The world heritage sites were strongly represented by members from many of the UK sites, and ICOMOS, the IHBC and Historic England. The aim of World Heritage UK is to implement the vision that the UK will have a coherent approach to the management of world heritage sites, ensuring that they are known and understood, and embedded in our culture. We strongly believe that their outstanding universal value can provide inspiration, learning and enjoyment for society, underpinning the success of tourism destinations and growing the economy. The event’s key messages focused on our world heritage sites’ contribution to peace, health and wellbeing. Like-minded people within this unique hub of knowledge were sharing their expertise to enhance local, national and international engagement. It is recognised that world heritage sites are meeting the challenges of the climate emergency as their landscapes contribute to nature, biodiversity and climate-change mitigation. This philosophy, extending beyond World Heritage UK, should be celebrated by all who manage and maintain our heritage assets. World Heritage UK aligns with the IHBC objectives of setting standards, raising our profile, supporting excellence and stimulating debate. I took the opportunity to share its views on the skills needed to support the heritage sector and my passion for apprenticeships, as I emphasised when I took office in March. The range of skills needed across the heritage sector is diverse, covering surveying, planning, architecture, engineering, construction, craft skills and more. It is our duty as heritage professionals to support the sector and events such as this that celebrate the success of World Heritage UK and raise the IHBC’s profile. We need to highlight to local, regional and national government the role that heritage plays in supporting growth and the need to invest in skills and apprenticeships, maximising the impact of education. To advance this agenda, we are preparing a skills survey to inform sector-wide plans, which we hope to launch in Parliament early in 2026. The Big Pit at Blaenavon World Heritage Site (Photo: Steinsky, Wikimedia) James Craig’s 1768 plan of Edinburgh New Town, now the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site
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