Heritage at Risk

Heritage at Risk is a collective term applied to 'designated' heritage assets (i.e. those that are protected as Listed Buildings, Scheduled Monuments, etc.) that are at risk as a result of neglect, decay or inappropriate development, or are vulnerable to becoming so.

In England, an annual Heritage at Risk Register is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for action and funding decisions. This Heritage at Risk data is one of the UK government's official statistics.

The generic phrase "heritage at risk" is also used by a range of organisations to describe historic assets that are not formally protected by the designation process, including art and canals, but that are in danger of decay or loss.

The Heritage at Risk Register covers:

The national Register is produced as an online database, and as a register for each of the nine English regions.

The site's condition and trends are published for each entry. The Register is accompanied by a summary that provides key statistics and includes:

Each entry is given a priority for action, ranging from A: "immediate risk of further rapid deterioration/loss of fabric and no solution agreed", to F: "repair scheme in progress (and where applicable) end user found". It is possible to search the register online—by location, asset type and condition.

Many English planning authorities publish their own 'Heritage at Risk' or 'Buildings at Risk' registers, and several are published on local council websites, e.g. Bolsover District Council and Essex County Council.

Heritage at Risk initially focussed on buildings. Historic England developed a methodology for assessing building at risk in the mid-1980s and worked with a number of local planning authorities to carry out surveys of listed buildings to identify which were at risk. Ipswich Borough Council has continued to maintain its buildings at risk register since 1987. SAVE Britain's Heritage (SAVE) has compiled a register of buildings at risk since 1989.

Historic England, previously named English Heritage, published its first Register of Buildings at Risk in London in 1991. It only included listed buildings in London. This was followed by publication of the national Buildings at Risk sample survey in 1992. The Buildings at Risk Register was extended nationally to all Grade I and Grade II* listed buildings and structural scheduled monuments in England in 1998. The 2007 register included 1,235 buildings and structures; of these the 16 in most serious danger had an estimated repair bill of £127.9m.

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