Local authority property management and the maintenance of heritage

Many local authorities have responsibility for maintaining a part of the national heritage, which may be in danger of serious depreciation because of inadequacies in the funding process. The “major cities” in particular played a unique role in Britain’s industrial development which almost inevitably led to the accumulation of a wealth of local heritage. These authorities pay heavily in terms of the financing of that heritage conservation. Attention is focused on two sectors of local authority spending where heritage is a particularly important determinant of cost and where the necessary resources are restrained by funding arrangements. The sectors concerned are: parks and public open spaces and museums and art galleries. The paper reviews the funding system and tests its appropriateness to meet resource needs. There is at least a strong suggestion that the disproportionate spending by the major cities in certain areas derives to a greater or lesser extent from industrial heritage. The major cities may have a greater share of responsibility for maintaining the national heritage derived from their industrial history. The current system of grant allocation makes no allowance for these factors. If these can be identified and measured more precisely then there is the potential for including them in the grant allocation process. This would result in a grant allocation more closely related to authorities’ needs and in consequence help to ensure that sufficient resources are available to them.