Historic England calls for views on heritage building skills

Historic England is undertaking research into England’s heritage building skills sector. 

The findings will help to inform recommendations about how best to preserve and protect the country’s historic and older buildings.

Heritage buildings need specialised skills and understanding for their ongoing maintenance, repair, and restoration. It is also vital to understand how best to retrofit older buildings if the UK is to reduce carbon emissions and reach net zero.

Tess Gale, sector resilience and skills director at Historic England, said: “The skills needed to maintain, repair, adapt and retrofit England’s traditional buildings are specialist. 

“This research project will help Historic England, and partners in the sector, to better understand where skills needs are most pressing, enabling effective and collaborative action to address these.”

The survey will be conducted by research agency Harlow Consulting, between January and February 2024.

Jennifer Brennan, director at Harlow Consulting, said: “This work will map the profile of the workforce and relevant training provision, identify skills gaps and shortages, and make recommendations about how best to preserve and protect our heritage building skills.”

Brennan added: “We strongly encourage those working in this sector to take part in the survey. Their views are incredibly valuable and will help Historic England and their stakeholders understand what actions can be taken to support vital skills and training.”

To register an interest in taking part, please click here.