The social and economic impacts of the historic environment on local, regional and national activity can be very significant. The evidence for this impact can easily be seen in the number and diversity of visitors to UK heritage sites, the significance of this country’s culture and history to the tourism offer, and the widespread interest in history in education and leisure activities. However, the full extent of the impact is not always fully revealed, for example because the people employed in work relating to the historic environment are not separately identified in official statistics and the coverage and detail of visitor data is limited.
In order to improve the data and analysis to inform policy and decision making, social and economic research has been identified as a priority area in the English Heritage Research Strategy and is also an important part of the sector-wide strategy produced by the UK Historic Environment Research Group (UKHERG), A Framework for Policy Research.
The research projects being developed take advantage of lessons learned in other sectors, for example the methodology and use of valuation studies in the natural environment. A report sponsored by English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Transport, Valuation of the Historic Environment, has considered the limited number of existing valuation studies in the heritage sector and identified a number of ways ahead for improving the evidence base.
There have been a number of studies that have attempted to record the economic impact of activities associated with the historic environment. In order to make the results of future studies consistent (both within the sector and with other sectors) English Heritage has issued a report, The Heritage Dividend Methodology: Measuring the Impact of Heritage Projects. The recent report, A Study of the Social and Economic Impacts and Benefits of Traditional Farm Building repair and Re-use in the Lake District RSA, uses this methodology.
The impact of the historic environment on key social "outcomes", i.e the difference the historic environment has made to their lives or to society, such as quality of life and wellbeing is under-researched and poorly understood. A priority for future research is to consider how best to improve the understanding and analysis of social outcomes from participation in activities to do with the historic environment.
The report from an extremely successful conference, Capturing the Public Value of Heritage, has recently been published. The application of the concept of public value to decision making in the heritage sector is an important research activity for the sector.
A further encouragement to the social and economic research agenda is the availability of new data from the Taking Part survey managed by
DCMS. This survey provides data on participation (and non-participation) in the historic environment together with a wealth of data about the socio-economic background of respondents, attitudes to heritage, as well as participation in other cultural and sporting activities. The main use of the Taking Part survey is to monitor the performance of the sector against the Public Service Agreement targets for participation by disadvantaged groups. However the results of the survey can also be used to provide the basis for in-depth analysis of background factors affecting participation and inform debates about social inclusion and heritage and the debate about public value and its contribution to the historic environment. More information about the Taking Part survey can be found in the
Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure & Sport provisional results report.
