Guide
What is a heritage statement, and when do you need one?
Updated
The document has several names and one job: to let the decision-maker understand what is significant about the asset and what your proposals would do to it.
The requirement in one sentence
National planning practice guidance on the historic environment states that applicants are expected to describe in their application the significance of any heritage assets affected, including any contribution made by their setting, and that the level of detail should be proportionate to the asset's importance and no more than is sufficient to understand the potential impact of the proposal on its significance (gov.uk). A heritage statement is the document that discharges that expectation.
When one is normally expected
- Any application for listed building consent, whatever the scale of works.
- Planning applications for works to or in the curtilage of a listed building.
- Applications in a conservation area, where the authority has a duty under section 72 of the 1990 Act to pay special attention to the desirability of preserving or enhancing the character or appearance of the area (legislation.gov.uk).
- Development affecting the setting of a listed building, scheduled monument, registered park or garden, or a battlefield.
- Development affecting a non-designated heritage asset, such as a locally listed building or an archaeological site on the council's records.
- Wherever the authority's own local validation list requires one. This varies between authorities, so check the list for the council you are applying to before assuming.
What a proportionate statement contains
- Identification of the asset
- What is designated, at what grade, and what else nearby is affected including by change to its setting.
- Assessment of significance
- What matters about the asset and why, drawing on its history, fabric, plan form, use and setting. This is the analytical heart of the document.
- The proposals
- A clear description of what is proposed, cross-referred to the drawings, including what is being removed as well as what is being added.
- Assessment of impact
- How the proposals affect the significance identified, element by element, and where relevant whether that amounts to substantial harm or less than substantial harm.
- Justification and mitigation
- Why the proposals are appropriate, what alternatives were considered, and what measures reduce harm or deliver heritage benefits.
Harm, and why the word matters
Planning practice guidance states that where potential harm to designated heritage assets is identified, it needs to be categorised as either less than substantial harm or substantial harm (which includes total loss), and notes that substantial harm is a high test, so it may not arise in many cases (gov.uk). Which side of that line a scheme falls on is the single most consequential judgement in a heritage statement, and it is a large part of what a consultant's fee buys.
Names vary between authorities: heritage statement, heritage impact assessment, statement of significance, heritage appraisal. The label matters much less than whether the content answers the two questions national guidance asks. See heritage statement against heritage impact assessment.