RICS, the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) have put together a joint response to the UK Government's Heritage White Paper.

The organisations warmly welcome the Heritage White Paper, Heritage Protection in the 21st Century, as much for what it represents – a commitment to simplify and clarify heritage systems – as for the individual proposals it contains.

The White Paper proposes to simplify and modernise the key processes for managing the historic environment, focussing primarily on designation and control. This is a commendable starting point.

We particularly welcome the White Paper’s interest in bringing the historic environment as a whole, including scheduled monuments, into the mainstream of wider environmental management, through the planning system.

The scale and technical complexity of the necessary legislative consolidation should not be under-estimated. We commend and encourage the willingness and energy of Department for Culture, Media and Sport in identifying and responding to the need for reform.

However this commendation has to be coupled with criticism of the narrowness of the White Paper’s approach. Reform must extend beyond the cultural interests of the sponsoring department to the wider operations of government, particularly DCLG and the Treasury.

The major benefits to the planning system coupled with the huge economic, social and environmental advantages of properly implemented proposals, should allow DCMS and English Heritage to make a successful case for appropriate investment and support.

For further information contact: publicaffairs@rics.org