UKREiiF | Outgoing Historic England CEO on preserving the nation’s heritage ‘birthright’

Over the last 10 years, Duncan Wilson has fought to strike a balance between convincing the development industry it is not a blocker and trying to preserve the country’s historic estate. He sat down with Place North West at UKREiiF to reflect on his decade in post.

The perception among some in the development industry is that Historic England is a bad actor, waiting on the sidelines to object to their schemes on spurious heritage grounds.

This is simply not true, according to Wilson.

“We object to less than 1% of cases we respond to,” Wilson said. “That is a tiny number.”

He suggested that there is an unwillingness among some developers to engage with Historic England and have a constructive conversation around listed buildings on or near their sites.

Early engagement with Historic England is the best way to appease the organisation, he said.

“It’s about rapid response, early engagement, and banging heads together so that we can work out an acceptable way forward,” he said of his approach.

Failure to engage early could have significant impacts down the line, Wilson added.

“One of the issues is where developers pay more than a site is worth on the assumption they’ll be able to knock down all the historic buildings. Then if they can’t, they lay the problem at our door.”

One scheme Historic England did object to recently was Viadux 2, Salboy’s 76-storey Manchester tower.

“We would have preferred it to be less tall so it impinged to a lesser extent on some heritage views,” he explained. Wwilson would not be drawn on just how much shorter he thinks the building should be.

Manchester City Council ultimately approved the application, deciding the economic and regenerative benefits of the scheme outweighed the harm to the city’s heritage.

This was frustrating for Wilson, who believes Historic England would have less reason to object in general if councils put into place “strategic plans” about what can be built where.

Historic England’s objection to Salboy’s Viadux 2 fell on deaf ears. Credit: via Salboy

“The trouble is, when [projects] are determined on a one-off basis, you can’t always get the right long-term decisions,” he said.

“Anywhere there is a big metropolitan centre, those tensions are bound to occur.”

Historic England is currently consulting on a local plan for the City of London in the hopes of heading off any potential conflicts at the pass.

While defeated in its bid to reduce the height of what will one day be Manchester’s tallest building, Wilson can reflect on several successes during his tenure, including discovering the remains of a pair of Bronze Age civilisations.

Going forward, Wilson views Labour’s push for growth and more housing as an opportunity for the nation’s historic estate, rather than a threat.

“Our calculation is that we could deliver 670,000 homes from empty or derelict historic buildings,” he said.

In order for even a fraction of these homes to be delivered, Historic England will need to engage effectively and constructively with the development community. It is the work done on improving these relations to “get better outcomes for the public” that he is most proud of.

“We have succeeded with [that] to some extent,” he said.

“I am passionate about heritage, and I think it’s the birth right of everyone in the country that their heritage is protected and made accessible to them, and we can’t do that if it is constantly under threat, but we are making progress.”

Over the years, Wilson has been left frustrated at attempts to convey his passion for Historic England’s work to the development community and government.

“It’s not necessarily a message everyone wants to hear, but I genuinely believe it,” he said.

“I recognise that planning authorities are under huge pressure to deliver new housing and that local authorities have a financial incentive to develop places. We just, we want to make sure that growth lasts, and that it’s high-quality because in the long term, that’s in everybody’s interest.”

Wilson will be replaced by Claudia Kenyatta and Emma Squire, who will share the chief executive role.