Local Authority Historic Environment Services

Building on the earlier work in Local Authority Conservation Provision English Heritage in partnership with Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers (ALGAO) and the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) have initiated a project which looks to collect data about the staff resources available for building conservation and archaeology within local authorities and English Heritage, particularly those involved in the planning process. The project is planned to run for an initial three years.

Implementing the Heritage Protection Reforms: a Report on Local Authority and English Heritage Staff Resources

The report, published in May 2009, sets out the available staff resources in Local Authorities and English Heritage. The figures show that the overall staff resources in historic environment services had grown by 20% between 2003 and 2006; however they dropped 5% (equivalent to 66 FTEs) between 2006 and 2008. Although overall staff resources remain above the 2003, and the reduction has not yet caused failure in local authority historic environment services, there are early reports of problems developing in some areas.

Implementing the Heritage Protection Reforms: a Report on Local Authority and English Heritage Staff Resources

Implementing the Heritage Protection Reforms: A Second Report on Local Authority Staff Resources

The August 2010 report shows that historic environment staffing provision in local authorities has continued to decline since the last report in May 2009. In the 15 months between the 2008 surveys undertaken by ALGAO and IHBC and the equivalent surveys in 2010 the numbers of staff who deal with archaeology has fallen by 4%, and those who deal with building and area conservation by 6.9%, giving a combined reduction for all local authority historic environment staff of 5.9%.  The numbers of historic environment staff, however, are still slightly higher than in 2003 when broadly equivalent figures were first collected.

As it is likely that the current proposals for reductions in funding for the public sector will result in further staff cuts, any such decline must be seen as additional to previous reductions in staffing, reducing capacity and the provision of historic environment services.

Implementing the Heritage Protection Reforms: A Second Report on Local Authority Staff Resources