Department for Digital, Culture Media & Sport

Department for Digital, Culture Media & Sport

Heritage Statement 2017

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Heritage Statement 2017

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Contents

Ministerial Foreword

4

Introduction

6

Facts and figures

10

Our heritage creates great places

12

Our heritage is for everyone

19

Our heritage is international

25

Creating a sustainable and resilient heritage sector

29

Front cover photographs Top left: Holmes Mill Clitheroe, Lancashire. ? Historic England Top right: Lanyon Quoit, Cornwall. ? DCMS Bottom left: Brusselton Incline Group members on the former Stockton & Darlington Railway, Shildon, County Durham. ? Historic England Bottom right: Humber Bridge. ? Historic England

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Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Foreword

By John Glen, Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism

Our heritage is all around us. In our towns and cities, and in our villages and rural areas. In historic buildings, places of worship, inspiring landscapes, ancient ruins and archaeological sites, statues and memorials. In places where great events happened, where famous figures of the past wrote their names in the history books, and where countless ordinary men and women lived and worked. It speaks to us of who we are and where we have come from, of how we came to be the people and the nation we are today.

I know from my own constituency, which includes the World Heritage Site of Stonehenge and the historic market town of Salisbury with its famous cathedral, how important our heritage is for our economy and society. It attracts visitors from across the country and around the world. It is a key part of our tourism offer and our soft power. It provides employment for hundreds of thousands of people and volunteering opportunities for thousands more. It contributes to our economy. It helps to create places where we want to live, work, enjoy our leisure and come together in our communities.

Our heritage requires careful protection and sympathetic conservation. But we need to focus our investment to protect, conserve and enhance our heritage where it delivers the greatest benefits today and in the future. We must ensure that our heritage helps to create great places to live, work, visit, and do business, as well as contributing to our economy, our wellbeing and the regeneration of our communities. We must aim to improve access to our heritage and extend opportunities to enjoy and learn about it to everyone in every community. And we must maximise the power of our heritage as an asset in our international outlook and use it to promote our country around the world.

This statement sets out the government's direction and priorities for England's heritage in the coming years, building on the commitments we made in the Culture White Paper in 2016 and our broader Industrial Strategy. It is structured around four key themes and it focuses on areas where the government can help

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to support and develop the heritage sector and add value to the work of heritage organisations, specialists, professionals, volunteers and all those responsible for the management, protection and promotion of our heritage.

Meeting the challenges which this statement identifies will help to create a sector which is strong, confident, connected and outward-facing. Across the country people and organisations are already working together and with partners from other sectors to take on the challenges of today and those of tomorrow, making strategic decisions about funding and collaborating in joint initiatives and projects so that everyone in the country can access and enjoy our nation's culture and heritage.

I am committed to working with the heritage sector and to being a champion for heritage within government. My ministerial portfolio, which covers the arts, museums, libraries and tourism, as well as heritage, presents a golden opportunity to build strong links between heritage and the other cultural sectors and to harness the synergies across these sectors to promote and strengthen the contribution they make to delivering the government's ambitions for our country.

I am also determined to develop the links between heritage and other areas of my department's business, including the digital agenda and the work of the Office for Civil Society, as well as the government's wider economic, social and environmental objectives.

Our heritage is an essential part of our cultural landscape, our economy and our country. It is globally-renowned and world-leading. This statement is a reaffirmation of the government's commitment to support the heritage sector and to help it protect, maintain and promote our heritage and ensure that it remains vibrant and relevant in the 21st century.

John Glen MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State

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