Details of funding for Historic Environment Scotland in the Scottish Government’s draft budget.
This budget summary was prepared as part of the State of Heritage 2021-22 event held on 4 February 2021.
The Scottish Government published its Budget 2021-22 on 28th January with details on the funding of Historic Environment Scotland within the Economy, Fair Work and Culture portfolio.
The total budget forecast for HES in 2021-22 is £91.3 million, a decrease of just under 9% on the previous year’s budget. The budget forecasts an income generation of £44.1m which at this point in time seems ambitious. However, the grant in aid figure of £55.9 million will be augmented by a further £20 million drawn from the allocation of COVID consequentials. With a total grant from Scottish Government of £75.9 million therefore, HES will only need to generate income of £15.3 million to meet the forecast budget for 2021-22. This is a 75% decrease over the previous year’s forecast income.
Arguably the comparison with the previous year’s budget is now moot given the drop in income generated by HES in a year with little tourist activity, albeit augmented by the additional £37.1m the organisation received via Scottish Government mid-year which came from the £97m UK Government consequentials for the culture and heritage sectors.
Unlike previous years, the budget makes no comment on HES role as a grant funder only stating that HES will continue “caring for our heritage and communities, creating local training and employment and supporting the maintenance of traditional craft skills.” The Scottish Government has dispensed around £14.5 million funding annually through HES for more than a decade.
| Level 3 | 2019-20 Budget | 2020-21 Budget | 2021-22 Budget |
| £m | £m | £m | |
| Operational Costs | 93.5 | 100.1 | 91.3 |
| Capital Expenditure | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Less Income | (59.7) | (63.3) | (41.4) |
| Total Historic Environment Scotland | 39.8 | 42.8 | 55.9 |
Below are some further figures from the budget that have implications for the wider built environment and it must be said that, More Homes aside, the budget is a broadly positive outcome given the year past and what looks to be ahead.
| Level 3 | 2019-20 Budget | 2020-21 Budget | 2021-22 Budget |
| £m | £m | £m | |
| Architecture and Place | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.5 |
| Building Standards | 0.9 | 2.0 | 16.7 |
| Planning | 6.5 | 8.3 | 11.5 |
| Planning and Environmental Appeals | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| More Homes | 788.7 | 896.1 | 628.1 |
| Fuel Poverty/Energy Efficiency | 119.6 | 137.1 | 145.6 |
| Regeneration | 42.3 | 47.4 | 81.6 |
| Vacant and Derelict Land Grant | 11.4 | 7.6 | 7.6 |
| Creative Scotland and Other Arts | 66.0 | 67.3 | 63.2 |
| Cultural Collections | 74.6 | 79.2 | 75.7 |
| Major Events and Themed Years | 16.8 | 6.6 | 8.2 |
| Culture and Major Events Staffing | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.7 |
| National Performing Companies | 22.9 | 22.9 | 22.9 |
| National Parks | 13.4 | 13.9 | 17.5 |
| Natural Resources, Peatland and Flooding | 4.6 | 29.7 | 34.1 |
| Scottish Environmental Protection Agency | 34.4 | 37.1 | 43.5 |
| NatureScot | 46.5 | 49.1 | 50.2 |
| Zero Waste | 20.5 | 16.5 | 40.2 |
| Land Reform | 15.6 | 15.0 | 14.9 |
| Scottish Land Commission | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| 2020-21 | 2021-22 | |
| £m | £m | |
| City Region and Growth Deals | 3.8 | 11.2 |
| Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Capital | ||
| Capital Land and Works | 22.0 | 22.0 |
| City Region and Growth Deals | 201.0 | 198.1 |
| Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS) | 55.0 | 58.0 |
| Regeneration Capital Grant Fund | 25.0 | 25.0 |
| Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme | – | 5.0 |
| Place, Town Centres and 20 Minute Neighbourhoods | – | 23.0 |
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Former BEFS Chair, Graeme Purves, compares approaches being taken by Wales and Scotland to highlight some strategic planning challenges.
As the initial consultation on Scotland’s fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) draws to a close, the Welsh Government is preparing to publish the final version of the National Development Framework for Wales, Future Wales: the National Plan 2040. Some of the issues raised during the Senedd’s final scrutiny of Future Wales are also of relevance for NPF4. This blog compares approaches being taken by the two devolved administrations to highlight some strategic planning challenges.
Post-Pandemic Recovery
Along with taking forward the pressing Climate Change agenda, one of the major challenges in both countries will be economic and social recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Scottish Government’s post-COVID Economic Recovery Implementation Plan reflects the neoliberal narrative set out in the Higgins Report, Towards a Robust, Resilient Wellbeing Economy for Scotland, Scottish Ministers do appear to recognise some role for strategic planning in recovery. The Implementation Plan indicates that NPF4 will be brought to Parliament in September. It also intends that the Regional Land Use Partnerships should have a role in regional economic development as well as meeting climate change goals. In his foreword to the Position Statement on NPF4 published in November, Planning Minister Kevin Stewart states that the experience of the pandemic has highlighted the importance of a good local environment, with good access to open space and amenities, but post-pandemic recovery is not developed as a theme in that document.
In a report Go Big – Go Local published in October, the UK2070 Commission warned that the pandemic may exacerbate regional inequalities and have disproportionate impacts on the elderly and opportunities for young people. It recommended that strategies for recovery should place emphasis on investment in infrastructure with a view to building resilience and strengthening connectivity.
During committee scrutiny of the draft Future Wales in the Autumn of last year, the Welsh Minister for Housing and Local Government, Julie James, argued that the strategy it set out is sufficiently robust and flexible to respond to the societal changes arising from the pandemic and that experience over the past year had validated its focus on climate change, place-making and resilience. However, the Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee has pressed for more. Drawing on the work of the UK2070 Commission, it has called for Future Wales to include a clear statement reflecting the lessons learned from COVID-19 and explaining how the framework will help to further post-COVID recovery. It has pressed for explicit recognition of the potential contributions of investment in infrastructure, housing, connectivity, heat networks and natural capital, and increasing capacity in the foundation economy. There may well be similar calls in Scotland.
The Regional Dimension of Recovery
While the Higgins report played down the role of the public sector, particularly local authorities, in recovery, some of its recommendations were very much in tune with the thinking of the UK2070 Commission. It called for an investment-led recovery. It recognised the need to address regional disparities in Scotland and advocated a regionally focused model of economic development.
Future Wales has a strong regional dimension. The Welsh Government will rely on strategic development plans for North, Mid, South-East and South-West Wales to take forward key aspects of policy development and implementation. How enthusiastic the Scottish Government will be about a strong regional dimension to recovery strategy remains to be seen. It has blown hot and cold over regions over the past decade. In 2014 it reaffirmed its commitment to strategic development plans at the regional level, yet the planning review initiated by Alex Neil in 2015 led to a proposal to end regional agency and centralise strategic planning in the National Planning Framework. As a result of opposition in the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government was obliged to accord a role to Regional Land Use Partnerships. The Position Statement for NPF4 states that “Our strategy will be informed by emerging regional scale spatial and economic strategies.”
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Barclay, announced in January that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund is to be disbursed from London. This creates a real danger that Scottish discretion on spatial priorities will be significantly curtailed. The Scottish Government may count itself fortunate that its attempt to abolish regional strategic planning failed. Without it, its flank might have been even more exposed to UK Government interventions than it is. It will be important for the Scottish Government to build strong relationships with local authorities and work closely with regional partnerships on spatial strategies.
Barclay’s announcement makes it even more important to be clear about the relationship between strategic spatial planning and growth deals. They reflect different ideological perspectives, and there is potential for them to pull in different directions. The Position Statement on NPF4 states only that regional spatial and economic strategies “will align with city and regional growth deals.” There is no indication that growth deals should reflect spatial strategies. In Wales, the Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee has recommended to the Welsh Government that “Future Wales should explicitly state the need for a reciprocal and iterative relationship between strategic development plans and growth deals over time.” Stakeholders should insist on the same relationship between spatial strategies and growth deals in Scotland.
Place-Making and Housing Delivery
There is contrast between the Welsh and Scottish Governments in their approach to place-making and housing delivery. Future Wales accords the public sector the lead role in urban development, regeneration and the delivery of affordable housing, though the Welsh Government remains coy about specific delivery mechanisms. In the NPF4 Position Statement, the public sector and local authorities barely get a mention. The Scottish Government appears to prefer a developer-led model, with the role of planning authorities being merely to provide developers with “a steady pipeline of land.” While there is a lot of aspirational rhetoric about place-making in the Position Statement, the Scottish Government shows little inclination to empower the public sector to take the necessary lead. Better places and 20-minute neighbourhoods are public policy objectives, but we are given no hint as to the mechanisms which will be used to deliver them. There is no reference, for example, to the work the Scottish Land Commission has been doing on land value capture and sharing for several years now.
Rural Repopulation
Finally, it is interesting that the repopulation of rural areas has re-emerged as an objective of spatial planning in Scotland and Wales, something we have not really seen since the strategic plans for post-Depression and post-War recovery in the middle of the last century. In autumn 2018, Community Land Scotland successfully promoted an amendment to the Planning (Scotland) Bill which requires the NPF to consider the potential for rural resettlement. The NPF Position Statement says that rural repopulation will be a key theme for emerging regional spatial strategies for the South of Scotland, Argyll and Bute, Western Isles, Orkney and the Highlands. The Welsh Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee has called for Future Wales to include further locational guidance on addressing rural depopulation. It has also pressed for the Welsh framework to recognise opportunities for people to live and work sustainably outside towns and cities.
by Graeme Purves
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Museums Galleries Scotland, BEFS, and greenspace scotland welcome the 40 organisations who will participate in the 18-month NLHF funded Business Support Programme, ‘Surviving to Thriving’ (StT).
At a time when heritage organisations are facing a multitude of challenges caused by the pandemic StT plays a key role through collaboration across the museums, greenspace, and built environment sector, in supporting organisations to develop their resilience through sustainable business models. With a focus on upskilling the heritage workforce across Scotland the programme invests in individuals and organisations, through building confidence and knowledge in business practice.
The programme will commence in April with BlueSky Experiences delivering the core training across the four strands of the programme: leadership, governance, business planning and local community engagement. City of Glasgow College will be providing additional skills-based training which will complement the core training. Axiom Consultancy have been appointed as programme evaluators.
Fiona Skiffington, Business Support Project Manager said:
“We are absolutely delighted to welcome the 40 organisations who join us for StT. Now more than ever it is vital to support the heritage workforce and organisations to develop business models and skills. Through the programme we are seeking to directly address the skills gap identified by the sector, and through investment in widespread workforce training we hope to support the sector to navigate the challenges of the pandemic and increase their resilience.”
Caroline Clark, Director Scotland of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:
“Collaboration is critical in building a successful and resilient heritage sector as we come out of this crisis. Thanks to players of The National Lottery, this initiative will facilitate cultural, built and natural heritage organisations to come together to develop their business models and support capacity building. We are delighted to be able to help the sector improve sustainability in this way as it has a crucial role to play in supporting Scotland’s economic recovery.”
The programme will be delivered digitally for the time being and will move to face-to-face when possible (as per government guidelines). To enable full participation in StT eligible organisations will be awarded a community grant. Participants on the programme reach right across the heritage sector and the country, yet all are facing similar challenges caused by the pandemic, with many citing the programme as vital for increasing their resilience.
Victoria Collison, Executive Director, Historic Churches Scotland said:
“Historic Churches Scotland is delighted to be selected to participate in the Business Support Programme. Securing the future of these historic buildings is not just about fixing the roof: more than ever, in these challenging times, it requires people with a broad range of skills from business planning to community development.
The programme is unique in providing the training we need for the people who need it, whether they are staff, board members, or volunteers. As an organisation we want to grow and to help more communities use and look after their church building in a sustainable way. The skills we gain from the programme will support not only our own work, but hopefully the work of many other community groups throughout Scotland in the future.”
Alexander Goodger, Museum Manager, Dundee Museum of Transport said:
” The Business Support Programme has appealed to us in particular because our income streams come from our events and ticket sales, income of which was down by 48% last year due to the pandemic. The training on business planning, and community engagement, alongside a community grant will help us to diversify our income streams, trial new ventures and re-connect with audiences locally and nationally for a brighter future.”
Helen Brown, Trust Manager, Water of Leith Conservation Trust said:
“We have many areas of our operation which will benefit from the support offered on the Business Support Programme, as grant support has reduced over the past decade building a sustainable approach to our income streams means we can continue to work with volunteers to conserve and enhance the Water of Leith, operate our Centre and community cafe and deliver our learning programmes. Charities have had to learn to adapt and become resilient to change especially this year, so we are excited to get started on planning a brighter future for our organisation.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
- Museums Galleries Scotland is the National Development Body for museums and galleries in Scotland and offers strategic development support to the sector. For further information about Museums Galleries Scotland visit www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/about-us/
- Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS) is an umbrella body for organisations working in the built environment in Scotland. Drawing on extensive expertise in a membership-led forum, BEFS informs, debates and advocates on the strategic issues, opportunities and challenges facing Scotland’s historic and contemporary built environment. befs.org.uk
- greenspace scotland is Scotland’s parks and greenspace charity and has provided a national lead on greenspace since 2002, working towards our goal that everyone living and working in urban Scotland has easy access to quality greenspace. https://www.greenspacescotland.org.uk/
- The 40 organisations participating in the Business Support Programme can be found at: https://www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/projects/business-support-programme/#participating-organisations
- More information on the Busines Support Programme can be found at https://www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/projects/business-support-programme/
Get The Latest Built Environment News, Policy Developments, Publications, Consultations And More.
BEFS News
2020 was a year unlike any other and as the financial year draws to a close, BEFS is hosting a webinar, The State of Heritage 2021-22, to hear about the current financial position from across the heritage sector and tentatively look at what the implications are for 2021. We will provide a brief overview of relevant details from the Scottish Government’s Budget, which will be announced later today. Organisational perspectives will be provided by National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, National Trust for Scotland, Historic Houses Scotland, Museums Galleries Scotland and Napier University. Sign up here.
The National Partnership for Culture (NPC) has published its work programme for 2021. The NPC provides advice and guidance to Scottish Ministers on key strategic issues affecting culture in Scotland. The work programme for 2021 is based on initial priority areas of focus, cross-cutting principles and with the recovery and renewal of the culture sector in Scotland at its heart. BEFS has been invited to participate in the workshops and to share outputs with members to enable sector review of draft agreed priorities and proposed actions from each workshop session.
BEFS submitted a short response to the Scottish Government’s land use consultation. The submission suggests alignment between natural and heritage protections, making considerations for people and place, and considering the values of landscape scale decisions.
Recordings of Under One Roof’s Autumn and Winter 2020 Webinar Programme are now available online. Funded by the SafeDeposits Scotland Charitable Trust, this series explored a range of tenement related topics from factors to debt recovery and how to have difficult conversations. The physical side of tenement repairs was also covered with webinars on how to inspect a property, how to look after the roof and structural issues. The recordings – and the associated CPD certificates – are completely free .
BEFS Policy & Strategy Manager, Ailsa Macfarlane, reflects on the potential damage of the common narrative in heritage protection, in our blog this week: Is the language of salvation helping heritage?
Consultations
Inquiry – 21st century places: values and benefits
Closes 29 Jan 2021.
Strengthening Scottish Charity Law Survey
Closes 19 Feb 2021.
Draft Guidance on minimum standards for depositing archaeological assemblages in Scotland
Deadline for responses 8th Feb 2021. Consultation document.
National Planning Framework: Position Statement
Closes 19 Feb 2021.
New Build Heat Standard – Scoping Consultation
Closes 3 Mar 2021.
Mediation in Planning
Closes 12 Mar 2021.
Draft Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change
Closes 17 Mar 2021.
Consultation Responses
Just Transition Commission call for evidence: analysis report (SG 18/01/21)
Publications
Plan the Scotland We Need – A Manifesto for the 2021 Scottish Parliament Election (RTPI 26/01/21)
National Partnership for Culture: work programme – 2021 (SG 21/01/21)
Brexit Guidance & Useful Resources (RIAS 21/01/21)
Prospect – Updated guidance on safe working during COVID (CIfA 21/01/21)
Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011: Code of conduct for Property Factors (SG 18/01/21)
Health on the High Street (SMF 19/01/21)
Scottish Government News Releases
Community projects get £25 million funding (SG 27/01/21)
More than £25 million is going to disadvantaged and remote communities around Scotland to support regeneration and employment projects.
News Releases
Culture and Heritage Capital portal (DCMS 21/01/21)
This page brings together research, guidance and estimates to help government and private organisations consider the value of culture and heritage capital.
The effect of Brexit on UK construction (RICS 11/01/21)
The UK and EU’s announcement of a trade deal from 1st January 2021 imposes no direct charges on construction or construction products but there are administrative burdens that will add to cost and inhibit the functioning of the UK construction industry.
My Place Awards (SCT 01/21)
The My Place Awards celebrate community-led built environment projects that have transformed their locality. The Awards honour projects that have excelled in terms of community involvement/impact and design. Winners of the My Place Awards benefit from the opportunity to develop a national profile and evidence impact to potential and existing funders, as well as be featured in a public exhibition. The My Place Awards 2021 are now open for entries. The deadline for entries is 11:59pm, 31st January 2021. Enter here!
Hidden meanings in Scotland’s historic places (HES 18/01/21)
Many of Scotland’s historic places contain features which may have hidden meanings. Join us as we take a look at some of our favourites.
Opinion & Comment
Thinking Local First Isn’t Just A Resolution – It’s a Lifeline (STP 21/01/21)
Events
For the latest information about BEFS Members’ events see our events calendar.
Artistry and Architecture – Sir Ninian Comper by Andrew Wright OBE
Date & time: Thu, 28 Jan 2021, 19:30.
Online
As a leading exponent of Gothic Revival in Britain in the twentieth century, Comper is one of Aberdeen’s most illustrious architectural sons. In this illustrated lecture, seminal works located in Northeast Scotland and undertaken at various stages of Comper’s career, will be examined, building upon the lecturer’s involvement with the care of one of Comper’s finest churches; St Margaret of Scotland at Braemar.
Campaign for a National Plan that Puts People and Planet First
Date & time: 28 January, 6-8pm.
Online
Decisions on important developments (housing etc) are guided through the Scotland’s National Planning Framework (NPF). It will decide on national developments like Dundee Waterfront, Grangemouth Investment zone, flood protection areas and new national parks. It will contain important policies on housing, renewable energy and the environment. The latest NPF4 will last until 2050 and is being drawn up NOW. Developments included in NPF4 will be untouchable once it’s been signed off by Parliament in 2022. But there is lots we can do before then.
Collective Architecture
Date & time: Mon, 1 Feb 2021, 18:15.
Online: Zoom.
Chris Stewart is an Architect-Director of the award-winning, employee-owned practice Collective Architecture, as well as a director of the Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA). In this talk he will tell us about the practice’s projects and its approach to sustainable design and client and user involvement.
National Planning Framework 4 – Community Discussion Workshops
Dates & times: Tue, 2 Feb 2021 11:00-12.30; Wed, 3 Feb 2021 11:00-12.30; Tue, 9 Feb 2021 16:00-17:30.
Online via Zoom
National Planning Framework 4 is being prepared by the Scottish Government as the new “national plan” for Scotland – it will be the key document setting Scottish planning policy direction until 2031. The Position Statement sets out Scottish Government thinking based on consultation undertaken so far. PAS (Planning Aid Scotland) has been asked to run three workshops to hear the views of community group representatives about the Position Statement. We will also cover how to respond effectively and next steps in the NPF4 process. Places are limited to 20 per event.
The Landscape of Outdoor Learning – Online Webinar: A response to the 1140h EY Expansions
Date & time: Wed, 17 February 2021 12:00 – 13:30 GMT
Online
This webinar explores and celebrates the benefits of well-designed, nature based playgrounds in Early Years outdoor learning & child development. This talk is aimed at educators, design professionals and organisations responsible for delivering successful Early Years outdoor learning. Our guest speakers discuss their work and experience of designing and implementing Early Years playscapes since the 1140h Expansion guidelines made way in Scotland: Felicity Steers : Director – erz; Natalie Murray: Technical Director – Wardell Armstrong; Education and Property Team : West Lothian Council. Followed by a Q&A session.
Planning Law for Heritage and the Arts – A Survival Guide
Date & time: 18 February 2021, 13:00 – 15:30
Online: via Zoom
Planning is also undergoing significant reform, with emergency Covid-19 measures in place while wider reform continues apace. This session aims to identify potential planning pitfalls and how to deal with them. It will give you an understanding of the key concepts underpinning the Scottish planning system and will illustrate how an Arts and Heritage development is regulated in practice and review the consequences of breaching planning controls. Topical issues and upcoming reforms will also be covered, alongside questions and comments from delegates throughout the session.
Telling It Like It Is – Effective Copywriting
Date & time: 23 February 2021, 10:00 – 12:30
Online: via Zoom
This training session is aimed at anyone looking to improve their copywriting skills to support their fund-raising activities. Offering a combination of project-based, hands-on writing exercises with tips, techniques and critical theory, the session explores the five stages of the copywriting process. While the training provides a specific focus on writing a case for support, the resulting learning can be applied to all kinds of fundraising communications.
66 The House That Viewed the World
Date & time: Monday, 1st March; Lecture starts at 6.30pm prompt.
Online via Zoom.
Author John D.O. Fulton discusses his recent book about 66 Queen Street in Edinburgh’s New Town, which tells the story of the people and events associated with the house over the course of 210 years. The diverse characters, whose lives were empowered by the Scottish Enlightenment, range from heroes to villains and from people of conscience to subjects of tabloid scandal and moral prurience.
Culture & Business Fund Scotland Roadshows: A source of support for COVID-19 recovery & renewal
Date & time: Tuesday 9 March 11:00am — 13:00pm & Tuesday 30 March 11:00am — 13:00pm
Online: via Zoom
Due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, we are taking our Culture & Business Scotland (CBFS) Roadshows online. These free webinars will give attendees from across the arts, heritage, third, public and business sectors the opportunity to learn about the fund, and how we have adapted the criteria to provide more flexible support for the sectors through a period of recovery and renewal throughout 2021 and beyond.
Keeping in touch with your supporters: keeping yourself right with data protection law (GDPR)
Date & time: 23 March 2021, 13:00 – 16:00
Online: via Zoom
During this difficult time when so many venues are closed, we are keeping in touch with our audiences, supporters and followers virtually. Of course some events can take place online and as a result you may obtain more information and personal data than you usually do, but what can you do with that lawfully? The proper use of personal data is important, not only to ensure compliance with the law but also to maintain the trust of supporters. This session will provide you with an understanding of the law, using practical examples from the sector to bring the topic to life.
Legacy giving. Now is the time – if you do it right. Learn how to!
Date & time: 25 March 2021, 11:00 – 15:00
Online: via Zoom
This course is focused on how to integrate legacies into your current fundraising at little or no cost at a time when more people are making Wills than we have witnessed in decades.
Vacancies
Icon seeks Trustee with financial expertise
Icon is currently recruiting for a Trustee, who will also be Chair Designate for the Finance Committee.
Closing date is Wednesday 10 February 2021.
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BEFS Policy & Strategy Manager reflects on the potential damage of the common narrative in heritage protection.
Read any report, research output, press-release, or corporate statement involving heritage and ‘save’ will be prominent. Whether ‘saved’ for the nation, the community, or future generations – you can be certain that the heritage in question is to be made ‘safe’ from the evil it was perceived to be beset by (options for evil forces can include, but are not limited to: neglect, weather, and misuse).
We don’t have the language to explain what is being done to heritage. This is a lie; we don’t have the time to explain what heritage needs. ‘Saved’ is seen as useful shorthand, but it doesn’t enable the more nuanced and detailed descriptions necessary to give heritage it’s full place at the table.
We’ve been so eager (understandably) to get any of the resources available that we’ve convinced those with access to the purse-strings that something needs to be SAVED. It’s a quick ask, it’s an urgent ask, it manifests the concept of loss, and no-one wants that…
So, our quick, effective, asks – to save – have been seemingly successful. The funding has (sometimes) been found; the heritage has been ‘secured’ for the audiences. But such asks have unintended consequences – we’ve reinforced all sorts of notions about heritage. About it being ‘special’ and ‘expensive’ and ‘unique’ and ‘difficult’ and ‘old’.
Suddenly heritage doesn’t sound like it has a role in a green recovery, a just recovery, a socially integrated recovery. Heritage doesn’t sound like it’s your house, your local street, the building your kids go to school in, the town-hall where the library is, the park you walked through on the way to work.
Heritage can sound like it doesn’t offer what communities and politicians seek:
- skilled jobs, jobs which will support a green transition – adapting and using our existing environment;
- a growing workforce for multiple traditional skills, unable to be automated – as we repair and maintain what we have;
- an important link in the materials supply chain – supporting countless other industries;
- a factor for providing more homes in existing places and communities, as buildings are brought back into use, or appropriately adapted;
- a resource, energising local communities and supporting local services – through the extensive tourism offer;
- a substantial focal point for regenerative strategies (high streets and town centres being only some of the story) – continuing the story of our places.
Saving is also a one-time ask, surely? It’s only a bad horror film where the protagonist needs rescuing again, and again.
Just as we’re trying to rewrite the narratives of fairy stories so little-girls don’t grow-up being shown how to manifest a learned sense of helplessness; we now need to rewrite the narratives for heritage.
Is heritage in need of ‘saving’? Or is it in need of resourcing – to prime the pump for the greater benefits that it can provide. It’s not ‘saving’, it’s an investment so our people and places can have the futures we haven’t even dreamt of yet.
Personal thoughts formed through researching policy responses, made more concrete due to the input of many well-informed individuals through the CHERF process (particularly the asks in relation to reframing the heritage narrative); and finally formed into something more concrete after reading a report from a home Nations organisation, where ‘saving’ was part of the current narrative.
Ailsa Macfarlane, Policy & Strategy Manager, Built Environment Forum Scotland
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BEFS News
In mid-December BEFS encouraged its membership to lobby Members of the Scottish Parliament on what we perceived to be an anomaly in the definition of “the environment” within Part 2 of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) Scotland) Bill. Our proposed amendment was not put forward by any MSPs but Scottish Ministers have responded with their reasoning as to why it was unnecessary. Read more here.
BEFS has responded to two consultations already in 2021. BEFS responded to the Local Government and Communities Committee’s call for views on the Scottish Government’s updated Climate Change Plan (CCPu) in relation to planning, housing, buildings, fuel poverty and green recovery. BEFS also submitted a short statement in response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the update to the Climate Change Plan 2018-2032. Both submissions can be found on our consultations page.
The Scottish Government has published a Policy statement on how nationally important land use planning matters should be addressed across the country.
BEFS team wishes you the best start to 2021 that is currently possible.
Consultations
Consultation: Scotland’s Third Land Use Strategy
Opened 2 Dec 2020 and closes 17 Jan 2021.
Short-term Letting Enquiry
If you would like to contribute to this work, please email your views by Friday 22 January.
Inquiry – 21st century places: values and benefits
Opened 30 Nov 2020 and closes 29 Jan 2021.
Strengthening Scottish Charity Law Survey
Opened 21 Dec 2020 and closes 5 Feb 2021.
National Planning Framework: Position Statement
Closes 19 Feb 2021.
New Build Heat Standard – Scoping Consultation
Opened 9 Dec 2020 and closes 3 Mar 2021.
Mediation in Planning
Opened 15 Dec 2020 and closes 12 Mar 2021.
Draft Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change
Opened 16 Dec 2020 and closes 17 Mar 2021.
Community landownership and the climate emergency
Consultation Responses
Permitted Development Rights (PDR) – review and extension: consultation analysis (SG 18/12/20)
Publications
Update to the Climate Change Plan – Background Information and Key Issues (SPICe 12/01/21)
Update to the Climate Change Plan – Key Sectors (SPICe 12/01/21)
Land of Opportunity – Towards a New Land Use Strategy for Scotland (RS 11/01/21)
Reviewing and Extending Permitted Development Rights Explanation of Phase 1 Measures (SG 12/20)
Scottish Household Survey 2019: methodology and fieldwork outcomes (SG 22/12/20)
Low carbon heating in domestic buildings – technical feasibility: report (SG 22/12/20)
Scottish Planning Policy – Policy statement on land use (SG 18/12/20)
Scottish Planning Policy – amendments: housing land research paper – evidence (SG 18/12/20)
Scottish Planning Policy – finalised amendments: December 2020 (SG 18/12/20)
Chief Planner letter: stakeholder update – December 2020 (SG 18/12/20)
Scotland’s Garden’s and Landscape Heritage Winter 2020 Newsletter (SGLH 12/20)
Scottish Government News Releases
Delivering Scotland’s green recovery (SG 08/01/21)
Communities across the country are to benefit from fast-tracked funding to help tackle climate change and deliver Scotland’s green recovery from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Stone of Destiny (SG 23/12/20)
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced that the Stone of Destiny is to be relocated to Perth.
Revitalising the River Clyde (SG 21/12/20)
A scheme to expand and transform one of Scotland’s busiest arts venues into a greener, year-round cultural destination is among the projects being supported by the Clyde Mission Fund.
£104 million tourism and hospitality lifeline (SG 21/12/20)
Tourism and hospitality businesses across Scotland are to benefit from a £104.3 million package of support in the New Year.
Supporting culture throughout the pandemic (SG 20/12/20)
An additional £7.1 million to secure the future of as many grassroots music venues and independent museums as possible has been announced by Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop.
Transforming vacant and derelict land (SG 19/12/20)
£50 million to help bring disused land back into use. Thousands of hectares of vacant and derelict land across Scotland will be transformed through a new £50 million programme over the next five years.
Steering Scotland’s pathway to net zero (SG 16/12/20)
More than 100 new policies and proposals to support Scotland’s green recovery and help deliver a just transition to net zero have been launched.
News Releases
Land of Opportunity – Towards a New Land Use Strategy for Scotland (RS 11/01/21)
UK’s departure from the Common Agricultural Policy should spark a debate about the future of rural Scotland, says Reform Scotland.
£104,888 boost for Scottish heritage projects (HES 22/12/20)
Brisbane Observatory, Govanhill Baths and The Ridge Foundations CIC are among the latest round of Historic Environment Support Fund recipients.
HES sign new partnership on Cultural Heritage and Climate Action with Irish Government (HES 21/12/20)
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cultural Heritage and Climate Action with the Heritage Division of the Irish Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Derelict sites to be transformed with £50m Scottish Government fund (SLC 19/12/20)
Thousands of hectares of vacant and derelict land across Scotland will be transformed through a new £50 million programme over the next five years.
Opinion & Comment
A look ahead at land reform (SLC 21/12/20)
Parliamentary Questions & Answers
Questions marked with a triangle (?) are initiated by the Government in order to facilitate the provision of information to the Parliament.
Question S5W-34233: Stuart McMillan, Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 22/12/2020
To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its Heat in Buildings Strategy.
Answered by Paul Wheelhouse (23/12/2020)
Events
For the latest information about BEFS Members’ events see our events calendar.
Comfort and Convenience in the Country House
Date & time: January 18th 2021, 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Online: via Zoom (free registration through Eventbrite)
This illustrated online lecture will look at ways in which elements of comfort and convenience were introduced into Victorian and Edwardian country houses. Historian and Britain’s first Professor of Industrial Archaeology, Marilyn Palmer, will consider the reasons why some landowners were keen innovators and others not, as well as the effects that new methods of water supply, sanitation, lighting and heating had on the way in which space was used in these houses and on their households.
Burns in the Burgh
Date & time: 6pm, Thursday 28 January 2021
Online: Zoom
Join us for a celebration of the ‘heav’n-taught ploughman’ through poetry readings and a virtual guided tour of the places particularly associated with the bard from his time in the capital from 1786 to 1788, with special guests.
Whose Festival is it Anyway? A Cockburn Conference
Date & time: Saturday 30th January from 11am to 3pm
Online: Book on Eventbrite (free but donations welcome).
The COVID crisis has presented significant challenges to Edinburgh’s attempts to be a year-round “Festival City”, dealing a serious blow to the city’s tourism and hospitality sectors. Important civic issues, such as economic resilience, public well-being and the wisdom of perpetual growth-centric policies, are being debated once again as Edinburgh reflects upon how its many Festivals should operate in a post-COVID world. The Cockburn Association has arranged a conference to explore these issues in greater detail. Among other topics, panellists will explore the impacts of festivalisation and how the city will meet its climate and sustainability obligations in the future.
The Power of Archives
Date & time: February 8th 2021, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Online: via Zoom (free registration through Eventbrite)
Archives are our gateway to the past, they help us connect with and understand our histories and shape our knowledge of who we are. They are, in many ways, instruments of power, determining what we remember and how we see ourselves. They also hold organisations to account, protect rights and promote social justice. In this online talk, Archivist and Head of Culture and Information at the University of Dundee, Caroline Brown, will explore these themes and reflect on how the creation of archives impacts not just history, but our world today and the direction we take into the future.
2020 Virtual SURF Awards Dinner
Date & time: 18th February 2021, 7pm.
Online: Streaming live via Vimeo.
SURF and the Scottish Government have teamed up again to deliver the prestigious SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration. These are presented to projects that are judged by a panel of independent regeneration experts to be performing outstanding regeneration work in Scotland’s communities. The awards process concludes with a celebratory dinner event, at which the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government will reveal the 2020 SURF Award winners. As public gatherings look uncertain for the foreseeable future, the dinner will be streamed live from Glasgow via Vimeo, with projects and partners joining the hosts virtually.
Planning Law for Heritage and the Arts – A Survival Guide
Date & time: 18 February 2021, 13:00 – 15:30
Online: via Zoom
Planning is also undergoing significant reform, with emergency Covid-19 measures in place while wider reform continues apace. This session aims to identify potential planning pitfalls and how to deal with them. It will give you an understanding of the key concepts underpinning the Scottish planning system and will illustrate how an Arts and Heritage development is regulated in practice and review the consequences of breaching planning controls. Topical issues and upcoming reforms will also be covered, alongside questions and comments from delegates throughout the session.
Telling It Like It Is – Effective Copywriting
Date & time: 23 February 2021, 10:00 – 12:30
Online: via Zoom
This training session is aimed at anyone looking to improve their copywriting skills to support their fund-raising activities. Offering a combination of project-based, hands-on writing exercises with tips, techniques and critical theory, the session explores the five stages of the copywriting process. While the training provides a specific focus on writing a case for support, the resulting learning can be applied to all kinds of fundraising communications.
Training
IHBC CPD Circular
Continuing Professional Development opportunities and much more.
As part of the IHBC’s commitment to providing our members and their networks with up-to-date information on continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities and information, this monthly Circular includes upcoming Branch and National CPD opportunities, Awards, Placements, Bursaries & Scholarships, Calls for Papers and more from across the UK and beyond.
Place Skills for Housing CPD Series
The focus of the Place Skills for Housing series is on supporting better place quality through considering location and place priorities for new housing led developments, as one important element of whole place planning.
Vacancies
Director of Heritage
This is an exciting opportunity for the right person to come and be part of our Historic Environment Scotland team. We are looking for an ambitious heritage professional with excellent leadership skills to join us. Reporting to the Chief Executive, the successful candidate will be a key member of the HES Senior Management Team, leading the heritage function.
Please return your C.V. and covering letter by the Monday 18 January 2021.
Project Officer (CARS)
Part of a wider Development Management Service Area collaborating closely with others to develop and embed the principles and practices which protect and enhance Aberdeen’s built and natural environment. The Union Street Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS) Project Officer will project manage the CARS project, deliver, process, monitor grant applications and promote and monitor projects and deliver the reporting requirements including risk management.
Closes: 18 January 2021.
Finance and Admin Officer
A critical post for an experienced charity finance professional to co-ordinate the financial activities of Fife Historic Buildings Trust and be part of a small team delivering historic regeneration projects for people and places in Fife.
Deadline for applications – 9am on Tues 19 January 2021.
Ministers respond to BEFS call to protect cultural heritage post-Brexit.
In mid-December BEFS encouraged its membership to lobby Members of the Scottish Parliament on what we perceived to be an anomaly in the definition of “the environment” within Part 2 of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) Scotland) Bill. Our proposed amendment was not put forward by any MSPs but Scottish Ministers have responded with their reasoning as to why it was unnecessary.
Thank you to all those that contacted MSPs, it was not in vain as it resulted in better engagement between the Bill team and our colleagues at HES. Scottish Ministers also give a commitment below to ensure that cultural heritage protections are adequately considered by the new body Environmental Standards Scotland – although it is noteworthy that cultural heritage does not appear to be an area of expertise of the chair or members.
Scottish Ministers’ response:
“We do not agree that the definitions of “the environment” in the Continuity Bill should change in the way outlined in your correspondence. The reference given in Schedule 3 of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 is a representative list of issues to be included in the consideration of the potential significant effects of a project or programme. It is not a definition of the environment, and we do not believe that it can be used in the way that is proposed in your suggested amendments to the Continuity Bill.
With respect to the definition of the environment at section 12, we have designed the duties at sections 10(1), 10(2) and 11 of the Continuity Bill for the guiding principles on the environment to apply with respect to the natural environment. This will cover some aspects of cultural environment, but it is not our intention that the guiding principles should apply to the built element of the cultural environment, to architectural and archaeological heritage or to other parts of the built environment. These other considerations will remain valid in the conduct of Strategic Environmental Assessments, as they are at present.
In relation to the definition of the environment at section 40, we do not see the role of Environmental Standards Scotland (“ESS”) extending to ensuring compliance with the law on the historic and cultural environment or with the law on architectural and archaeological heritage. This would be the effect of the expanding the definition of the environment at section 40.
Officials have discussed this issue with colleagues in Historic Environment Scotland (“HES”). ESS functions in the Bill relate to monitoring and compliance with “environmental law” as currently defined in section 39 of the Bill: that is, so far as relevant in the current context, law mainly concerned with “environmental protection”. In terms of section 40(1)(b) “environmental protection” includes preventing, mitigating, minimising or remedying “environmental harm” caused by human activities. “[E]nvironmental harm” includes damage to property and impairment of, or interference with, amenities or other legitimate uses of the environment. We therefore consider that is clear that consideration of the cultural environment will fall under the definition of “environmental harm” at section 40(2).
We consider that when ESS sets out more detail about is functions in its Strategy, as required under section 18 of the Bill, the Strategy should include information about how it will take account of impacts on cultural heritage as a part of its judgments of environmental harm. We will encourage ESS to speak to HES and relevant stakeholders such as the Built Environment Forum as it develops its strategy.”
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BEFS News
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is once again accepting project funding applications up to £100,000. This funding is to help the heritage community recover from the effects of the pandemic, and re-engage with the communities hardest hit. Grants are available to organisations working with heritage to build their resilience and engage with those most in need in our communities. The Fund has also launched interest free loans aimed at organisations looking to restart and develop their income generating potential. Find out more here.
Applications are open for the new Social Enterprise Academy’s, National Lottery Heritage Fund programme – Steps to Sustainability. The programme will help UK heritage organisation be ambitious, forward thinking and deliver exciting new projects. Starting in February 2021. Find out more here.
The Scottish Government has published Securing a Green Recovery on a Path to Net Zero, an update to Scotland’s 2018-2032 Climate Change Plan, which sets out the a pathway to new and ambitious targets set by the Climate Change Act 2019. It is a key strategic document on our green recovery from COVID-19.
Ahead of next year’s Scottish Parliament elections, the Scottish Civic Trust has published an action plan that outlines five priorities for the new Scottish Government: 1) Planning that genuinely benefits all communities, 2) Safe-guarding Scotland’s built heritage, 3) Homes and environments for well-being and climate change resilience, 4) Education that builds civic pride, and 5) A place for everyone. Read more.
BEFS responded to Historic Environment Scotland’s Talking About Heritage consultation, drawing on input from Members. Feedback was largely positive and Member’s working with community groups around an asset saw great benefit in the document’s approach. There were questions about what actions to take from the document, and whether more tailored, bite-size, sections would be available in the final iteration. Read the full response here.
BEFS is delighted to learn that Under One Roof, the advice website for flat owners and their advisers, is set to expand as it becomes a new charity. It is looking for a Chief Executive to lead it in its second phase where it plans more outreach work with tenement and flat owners in Scotland. Job details are available here.
At our AGM earlier this month, BEFS wished four wonderful board members a fond farewell. We would like to thank Jocelyn Cunliffe, Kate Houghton, Stuart Beattie and Tom Addyman for their expertise and support of the team. We would also like to welcome our newest board member Peter Drummond.
The Heritage Alliance will be counting down to the 25th December by sharing a different facet of the heritage sector each day on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Get in the festive spirit heritage style with #12DaysOfHeritage.
Finally, team BEFS would like to wish you a very merry festive season and a fantastic start to 2021!
Consultations
Draft Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change
Opened 16 Dec 2020 and closes 17 Mar 2021.
Planning system – promotion and mediation: draft guidance
Opened 15 Dec 2020 and closes 12 Mar 2021.
Consultations on Draft Guidance and Museums Processing Fee
– 1. Implementing a museum processing fee for archaeological assemblages in Scotland
– 2. New draft guidance for the minimum standards for the transfer of archaeological assemblages to museums in Scotland
Opened 14 Dec 2020 and closes 8 Feb 2021.
Inquiry – 21st century places: values and benefits
Opened 30 Nov 2020 and closes 29 Jan 2021.
New Build Heat Standard – Scoping Consultation
Opened 9 Dec 2020 and closes 3 Mar 2021.
Consultation: Scotland’s Third Land Use Strategy
Opened 2 Dec 2020 and closes 17 Jan 2021.
Scotland’s Economic Performance – The contribution of place-based economic development zones
Closes 20 Dec 2020.
National Planning Framework: Position Statement
Closes 19 Feb 2021.
COVID-19 Creative Industries Impact Survey
Community landownership and the climate emergency
Consultation Responses
Short-term lets – licensing scheme and planning control areas: consultation analysis (SG 10/12/20)
Publications
Edinburgh, Lothians & Borders Archaeology Conference Talks (12/20)
Architectural Heritage Fund Annual Review 2019-20 (AHF 14/12/20)
State of the Nation Report – Scotland (ICE 12/20)
Land and property taxation in Scotland: Initial scoping of options for reform (SLC 10/12/20)
Fire safety design summary (SG 09/12/20)
Common Good Land – A Protocol (SLC 03/12/20)
Delivering design value: The housing design quality conundrum (UKCCHE 12/20)
Gross Domestic Wellbeing (GDWe): an alternative measure of social progress (CUKT 12/20)
Respond, recover, reset: the voluntary sector and COVID-19 (11/20)
COVID-19 Voluntary Sector Impact Barometer (11/20)
Depositing Archaeological Finds & Assemblages in Scottish Museums 2020 Survey Report (SAS 10/20/)
Scottish Government News Releases
National Planning Framework 4 Position Statement – getting involved and having your say (SG 15/12/20)
We published our NPF4 Position Statement on 26 November 2020, setting out our current thinking towards the production of the next National Planning Framework. At the same time, we also published an updated Programme for Engagement.
New standards for short-term lets (SG 10/12/20)
Existing hosts of short-term lets will now have until April 2023 to apply for a licence under Scottish Government plans for regulation.
Setting housing standards to cut climate change emissions (SG 09/12/20)
Views sought on proposed rules requiring zero emissions heating systems in all new build homes.
News Releases
More than £165 million in repayable finance announced to support major arts and heritage institutions as Culture Recovery Fund marks £1 billion milestone (DDCMS 11/12/20)
£165 million offered to organisations including the National Theatre, Southbank Centre, English National Opera and Royal Shakespeare Company who will be supported by major loans from the Culture Recovery Fund.
Changes to the land and property tax system could support Scotland’s recovery and renewal (SLC 10/12/20)
Taxes on land and property could serve as a powerful tool for helping Scotland develop a robust, resilient wellbeing economy, according to a new report published today.
12 European heritage sites shortlisted for the 7 Most Endangered Programme 2021 (EN 10/12/20)
Europa Nostra and its partner organisation, the European Investment Bank Institute, have today announced the 12 most threatened heritage sites in Europe shortlisted for the 7 Most Endangered programme 2021.
‘Conservation, Places and People’ APPG (IHBC 08/12/20)
Westminster’s new All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on ‘Conservation, Places and People’, chaired by Layla Moran MP and with the IHBC as its Secretariat, has embarked on its first public inquiry, with the call closing on 29 January 2021 and oral evidence sessions to be announced in due course.
Caithness Iron Age stone tower conserved (BBC 08/12/20)
Conservation work has been completed on an Iron Age drystone tower that was damaged by Victorian archaeologists.
Make Your Mark in Volunteering (HES 04/12/20)
An initiative which aims to increase the number and diversity of heritage volunteers in Scotland has been launched.
+Home and Connector Housing are Named Joint Winners of the Government’s Home of 2030 Competition (A 04/12/20)
Launched in March 2020, and managed by the RIBA, the competition encouraged the design of environmentally friendly homes that support people in leading independent, fulfilling lives as our society ages.
Our infrastructure is also our heritage – we must maintain and reuse it for a greener future (HES 03/12/20)
Director of Heritage, Barbara Cummins, explains why we need to keep the infrastructure of our past and reuse it for a greener future.
New Protocol on local authority management of Common Good Land (SLC 03/12/20)
Clear expectations on the management of Common Good land by local authorities will help make the most of this unique form of ownership for communities, says the latest protocol from the Scottish Land Commission.
Opinion & Comment
The house of the future? A sun-filled, shape-shifting, shed-share paradise (Guardian 04/12/20)
Green growth vs degrowth: are we missing the point? (OD 04/12/20)
Parliamentary Questions & Answers
Questions marked with a triangle (?) are initiated by the Government in order to facilitate the provision of information to the Parliament.
Question S5W-33095: Liam McArthur, Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Date Lodged: 06/11/2020
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to prioritising the installation of low-carbon heating in the existing housing stock ahead of improving energy efficiency in that sector.
Answered by Paul Wheelhouse (03/12/2020)
Question S5W-33487: Liam McArthur, Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Date Lodged: 23/11/2020
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of research by Scottish Renewables recording a 20% reduction since 2011 in the number of local authority planning department staff, how it will ensure that councils are appropriately resourced to deliver the planning consents needed to deliver the renewable energy generation required to meet the net-zero target.
Answered by Kevin Stewart (02/12/2020)
Question S5W-33486: Liam McArthur, Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Date Lodged: 23/11/2020
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of research by Scottish Renewables recording a 20% reduction since 2011 in the number of local authority planning department staff, how the forthcoming NPF4 planning reforms will ensure that the planning system will be focused on tackling the climate emergency.
Answered by Kevin Stewart (02/12/2020)
Events
For the latest information about BEFS Members’ events see our events calendar.
2020 Virtual SURF Awards Dinner
Date & time: 18th February 2021, 7pm.
Online platform details: Streaming live via Vimeo.
SURF and the Scottish Government have teamed up again to deliver the prestigious SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration. These are presented to projects that are judged by a panel of independent regeneration experts to be performing outstanding regeneration work in Scotland’s communities. The awards process concludes with a celebratory dinner event, at which the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government will reveal the 2020 SURF Award winners. As public gatherings look uncertain for the foreseeable future, the dinner will be streamed live from Glasgow via Vimeo, with projects and partners joining the hosts virtually.
Vacancies
Chief Executive
Under One Roof, the highly praised advice website for flat owners and their advisers in Scotland, is set to expand as it becomes a new charity. It is looking for a Chief Executive to lead it in its second phase where it plans more outreach work with tenement and flat owners in Scotland. Job details are available on its website.
BEFS needs your help to protect Scotland’s cultural heritage.
Scotland’s architectural and archaeological heritage are a fundamental part of our identity and economy, and it is important that they remain protected in post-Brexit legislation.
The definition of “environment” within the amended draft UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity)(Scotland) Bill is currently inconsistent with both Scottish and European legislation and it may weaken environmental protections for cultural heritage. The wording proposed following Stage 2 of the Bill’s progress introduces a new definition which could result in future legal challenge.
To fully align with the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005, referred to in sections 11 and 13 of the draft Bill , we would recommend that the definition of “environment” should be amended to match that found in Schedule 3, Section 6 of the 2005 Act which fully aligns with Annexe II of Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament.
We would propose the following amendments to ensure continued protection for cultural heritage and for consistency across Scottish legislation:
In section 12, page 10 line 14 leave out subsections 2, (a) and (b) and insert –
(a) means biodiversity, population, human health, fauna, flora, soil, water, air, climatic factors, material assets, cultural heritage, including architectural and archaeological heritage, landscape, and
(b) the inter-relationship between the issues in (a)
In section 40, page 23, line 19, leave out subsections (3) (a) and (b) and insert—
(a) means biodiversity, population, human health, fauna, flora, soil, water, air, climatic factors, material assets, cultural heritage, including architectural and archaeological heritage, landscape, and
(b) the inter-relationship between the issues in (a)
If you would like to protect Scotland’s cultural heritage, please do share the above with your MSPs. You can find out how to contact your MSP via this link.
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BEFS Policy & Strategy Manager offers her thoughts on the Scottish Government’s NPF4 Position Statement released November 2020.
Rarely is a Statement released that so frequently states, reiterates, and supports, BEFS own policy positions made in previous responses to consultations.
A clear understanding of both the existing built environment as multi-faceted assets – capable of continuing to support our economic, environmental and social needs – but also as an essential part of the character and identity of places. This Statement takes into account the totality of our places, not just those considered special enough for Listing, Scheduling, or being part of a Conservation Area.
There is a strong thread of appropriate re-use, adaptation and appreciation of embodied carbon, an appreciation of our existing environment as part of our infrastructure. All the while being mindful of both the national strategy for the Historic Environment (OPiT) and giving the Historic Environment Policy for Scotland its appropriate policy role.
Aspects such as the UN-Sustainable Development Goals sit front and centre along-side the National Performance Framework and the aspiration for planning to support a Wellbeing Economy.
If there is an appropriate strategy or national plan – it is name checked, connected to this position statement, and the desire to ‘align’ strategic thinking across a raft of proposals is consistently reiterated. The Statement covers how it needs to link/interact/align to the following (this list is merely those that come to mind instantly… not all, by any means):
Infrastructure, Travel, Heat in Buildings, Place Principle, Place Standard, Housing, Developer Contributions, Health, sustainable Tourism, Climate, Nature and the Natural Environment, our Coasts, the Culture Strategy, Circular Economy, Rural Scotland, Town-Centre approaches, 20min Neighbourhoods Localism, and Design principles.
This Position piece is a veritable nirvana of built environment policy. Improved, well-designed, places enabling 20min neighbourhoods, building back our local and national economies for a carbon-neutral future, with infrastructure fit for the time-ahead we can only imagine.
Of the detailed, 45 page document, a scant two and a half pages are spent on Delivery of this appealing vision. This is understandable, it is a position statement -it is not the NPF4 – that, we are told, will come with a Delivery Programme.
For the future to look as bright as this document enables our dreaming to be, the ‘ground work’ needs to be started imminently. The evidence bases, appraisals, and skilled agents of all kinds across the planning, assessment, community and design sectors need to be in place, and resourced so any of these excellently intended plans can move past the ‘drawing board’ stage.
The final paragraph of the Delivery section, and the final part of the document not addressing the consultation it starts, leaves us with Masterplan Consent Areas – they remain presented as a useful, proactive tool; and perhaps this hints at the where the onus may lie in terms of delivery. Are Planning Authorities resourced to deliver the scale of vision set out here?
The numerous strategies and national plans mentioned demonstrates a real leap of connected – and connecting – thinking. This is what numerous organisations have been calling for, over many years. If it comes to fruition, it could enable our place (be that local or regional, rural, or city centre, coastal or mountain top) to fulfil its potential delivering both preventative-spend benefits, but tangible improvements to the lives of every citizen.
This statement suggests so much, perhaps too much. Whilst, the importance of planning cannot be understated, how the hierarchies of strategies/plans and investment shake-down in reality could leave planning with too much of the economic heavy-lifting, without it itself being resourced and skilled appropriately across the social, economic and cultural facets it seeks to deliver.
BEFS looks forward to working with Members in relation to the consultation on this in the new year.
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