BEFS Bulletin – Heritage Resilience Funding & Training

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

Expert views on green recovery from COVID-19, and alignment with Scottish Government plans (SPICe 15/12/20)

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)

Building standards – legislation and guidance changes for March 2021: letter to local authority verifiers (SG 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

Covid has finished off the old high street, but we can replace it with something better (Guardian 09/12/20)

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.

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