Briefing a heritage consultant on significance

A heritage consultant produces a usable document when the brief tells them which assets to assess, what harm the proposal may cause, and which statutory and policy tests the statement has to answer. A brief that says "please prepare a heritage statement for planning" produces a description of the building and a conclusion of no harm, which officers read as advocacy and discount. If you want to brief a heritage consultant well, write the brief around the decision the council has to make.

Architects often inherit this task after the design is fixed, which is the wrong order, and the brief can partly fix that by asking for the significance work first.

What a significance assessment has to establish

Significance is the sum of the heritage interest an asset holds, and Historic England's advice sets it out through heritage values: evidential, historical, aesthetic and communal. The useful statement does not assign a single level of significance to a building. It assigns significance element by element.

That matters because the planning judgement is about what you are changing. A Grade II listed farmhouse may have high significance in its early timber frame, moderate significance in its Victorian service wing, and none at all in a 1970s flat roofed extension. Removing the extension is a different proposition from altering the frame, and only a statement written element by element lets an officer see that.

The assessment also has to cover setting. The five step approach in Historic England's advice on setting runs from identifying the assets affected, through assessing how setting contributes to significance, to considering the effect of the proposal and any mitigation.

Membership routes and specialist experience

There is no single licence to practise heritage consultancy, so look at membership plus demonstrated experience with the asset type.

Then ask for the experience that fits the job. Someone whose practice is Victorian terraces in conservation areas is not the right author for a Grade I church or an industrial complex. Ask for two comparable statements, read the significance section rather than the conclusion, and see whether it would stand up if the officer disagreed with it.

A named author with a date on the document is not a formality either, as why every planning report needs a named author and date explains.

Archive research and what it costs

The research element is where briefs are vague and fees vary wildly. Specify it.

• National Heritage List for England entry and its date, with the list description treated as a starting point rather than a statement of significance
• Historic Environment Record search, which may carry a fee
• Ordnance Survey editions and tithe or enclosure mapping
• County record office or city archive holdings: deeds, estate papers, building control records
• Census and trade directory evidence where use history matters
• Earlier applications, listed building consents and enforcement history on the authority's register
• Published sources: county histories, conservation area appraisals, local studies collections

Say which of these you expect, and whether a day in a record office is included. A statement built only on the list description and a site visit reads exactly like what it is.

Fabric survey and recording levels

For anything beyond a minor alteration, the consultant needs access to the fabric. The brief should state what access is available, whether opening up is permitted, and whether a phasing plan is required.

Where recording is needed, Historic England's levels 1 to 4 give a common language, running from a basic visual record to a full analytical account. Specify the level, because the difference in effort between level 2 and level 4 is large. Historic Building Recording is often required by condition after consent as well as before, so clarify which stage your brief covers.

Ask for a phasing drawing. A plan coloured by construction period, with the evidence for each phase noted, is the single most useful output of a fabric survey, and it tells the design team where it can and cannot work.

Harm assessment and the policy tests

This is the part the brief must be explicit about. The consultant should apply, and name, the relevant tests:

1. The duty under section 16 and section 66 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 to have special regard to the desirability of preserving a listed building, its setting and any features of special interest
2. The duty under section 72 in respect of the character and appearance of a conservation area
3. The national policy requirement to give great weight to the conservation of designated heritage assets, with the weight increasing with the importance of the asset
4. Whether the harm is substantial or less than substantial, and the different balancing exercise that follows in each case
5. The public benefits offered against the harm identified, described specifically rather than in general terms

Write into the brief that you want the harm identified and quantified where it exists, not avoided. A statement that concedes less than substantial harm at the lower end of the scale, with a reasoned public benefits case, is far more persuasive than one that claims no harm at all and loses credibility with the conservation officer on the first page.

Reviewing a statement critically

When the draft arrives, check it against the decision rather than against your hopes for it.

• Does it assess significance element by element, with evidence for each judgement
• Does it name every designated and non-designated asset affected, including those whose setting is involved
• Does it apply the statutory duties by section number, and the national policy tests
• Does it state a harm conclusion plainly, and locate it on the scale
• Does it describe public benefits in terms the authority can weigh, not in adjectives
• Does it recommend design changes, or merely justify what was already drawn
• Are the figures, photographs and phasing plans legible at the size the officer will see them

If the conservation officer takes a different view, the quality of that evidence base is what you argue from, and when the council's expert disagrees with your consultant covers how that usually plays out.

A brief that produces a usable document

Keep it to a page. Name the site and the assets, attach the current drawings and the designation information, state the application type and the deadline, and set out the outputs you want: a Heritage Statement with a phasing plan, an element by element significance table, a harm conclusion against the statutory and policy tests, and a short set of design recommendations.

Then ask for the significance work to be delivered before the design is finalised. Paying for two weeks of research at the start usually saves a redesign later, and it is the one change in sequencing that improves both the building and the consent.

PlanScope drafts the heritage statement structure and the planning documents around it from a postcode and a short set of answers, flagging the fabric and archive facts it does not hold rather than inventing them, and you can send the draft for sign-off through the professional reviewer directory. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.